Opened as the first low-rent housing in St. Louis, the project was the culmination of over five years of unflagging efforts by the Board of Directors of Neighborhood Association and its Executive Director, J. A. Wolf.

All apartments featured entrances directly off stairs rather than corridors, 12- foot ceilings, cross ventilation and balconies. Rents ranged from $19.50 to $33.00 a month.

In site plan, massing and materials, Neighborhood Gardens was clearly one of the exceptional examples of American-designed and -built low-rent housing projects. Sixty percent of the site was devoted to open space, not space left over between boxcar buildings, but designed, landscaped and defensible space. The functional rooms within the units are spare but not mean or cheap.

It is ironic that little attention was paid to the architectural accomplishments of Neighborhood Gardens when it opened and that Pruitt-Igoe received first national acclaim, then disdain.

At this writing, most available funds for affordable housing are directed toward the construction of new "townhouses" rather than the conversion of this remarkable project. Empty, except for a few squatters, Neighborhood Gardens has become a blighting influence on nearby public housing projects.