Timeline quoted from The Metropolitian Midwest: Policy Problems and Prospects for Change
1936- Bartholomew ring plan published calling for redevelopment of slum belt around St. Louis central business district.
1951- Bulldozing begins for Pruitt-Igoe, the second postwar project. Architectural magazine acclaims design, housing authority proclaims it model for the rest of the country.
1954- Pruitt's first tenant, Frankie Mae Raglin, moves in.
1955- First recorded accidents as two girls fall, one from seventh, one from ninth floor. Firemen rescue children from stalled elevator.
1961-Occupancy averages only 82 percent. Crime rate highest of all city projects.
1962- State opens special Pruitt-Igoe welfare office with 45 additional caseworkers, two-thirds of households on welfare.
1964- Federal program launched to repair damage and create four- and five bedroom apartments out of the smaller, unoccupied Pruitt-Igoe units, $5 million new grant.
1966- Power failures become commonplace. Gas explosion, several central heating system breakdowns damage buildings and tenants' possessions, water supply freezes, pipes burst.
1968- Housing Authority director requests federal takeover or abandonment because of fiscal crisis. Massive rent increases force some occupants to pay three-fourths of income for rent.
1969- Pruitt-Igoe tenants join with other public housing tenants in nation’s longest public housing rent strike-nine months. At one time 28 of 34 elevators were inoperable, other systems were in comparable states.
1970- Sixty-five percent of Pruitt-Igoe units unoccupied. Deliverymen, messengers, and maintenance personnel refuse to enter the project without guards...Citing an expected $400,000 operating deficit and dwindling demand, SLHA announces intention of closing down many buildings.
1971- HUD concurs with closing plans. Remaining tenants moved to 11 buildings.
1972- Demolition experiment 16 March with controlled dynamite charges level three buildings in middle of project, $500,000 federal demonstration grant.
1973- St. Louis Housing Authority decides in June to cease operating Pruitt-Igoe. HUD announces in August the decision to demolish Pruitt-Igoe.
1974- Last tenant moves out in May.
1976- Final razing completed, $3.5 million HUD grant pays the wreckers.