The return of soldiers after the Second World War produced a national housing shortage, which was keenly felt in Evansville. This photo is dated 1947 and depicts a group of civic and business leaders, led by the Chamber of Commerce, inspecting a new housing development on Vann Avenue. Accompanying them was Mayor Manson Reichert, who is standing in the foreground at left.
A newspaper reporter commented that the new low-cost homes offered proof that “Evansville was whipping the housing shortage.†Since the first of the year, 538 new residences had been built, and an additional 1,100 were projected, especially in the newly annexed suburbs. Most houses ranged in price from $3,500 to $6,500.
Despite the building boom, adequate housing remained scarce throughout the year. The report noted that the city’s five federal housing units were occupied by 5,500 tenants, with 300 veteran applicants pending.
