Roosevelt Hall is a 18,000 square-feet, two-story brick building that is the only remaining structure of the former University Homes, the first public housing development in the nation for African Americans, demolished from 2008 to 2009. Roosevelt Hall is located at 660 Atlanta Student Movement Boulevard in the Atlanta University Center neighborhood. Built in 1937 during the Great Depression and named after 32nd president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Roosevelt Hall was once the central offices and commercial space for the former University Homes. It served as the leasing office and community center for the neighborhood, and it housed professional offices, a grocery store, a Five and Dime store, beauty and barbershops and a Yates and Milton drugstore.
Construction is underway to renovate this historic building. The architectural design team is Moody Nolan, and FS360 LLC is the construction general contractor. The re-imagined Roosevelt Hall will become a central gathering spot benefitting residents of Scholars Landing and for connecting with faculty, staff and students of the Atlanta University Center Consortium (AUCC) schools which includes Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse, Morehouse School of Medicine and Spelman College. Planned uses include office space on the second floor for the Atlanta Housing Choice Neighborhoods team and the staff of the Atlanta University Center Consortium Inc. The first floor will include community meeting space; a library, lifelong learning center, and technology center, and retail space. An exciting rooftop deck with amenities and redesign of the greenspace behind the building will enhance the appeal of this building for rental opportunities, special events, and lifelong learning activities in collaboration with the AUCC Inc. (a nonprofit affiliate of the AUCC schools). A historical timeline of the University Homes, Roosevelt Hall, and the AUCC schools will be featured along the walls of the first and second floors paying homage to their important place in history of Atlanta’s Westside.
