First Houses take their name from their distinction of being one of the first public housing units constructed in the United States, opening for the first tenants on December 3, 1935. Victorian-era tenements existed on the site before they were cleared to build the project, which was also the very first project undertaken by the city's new Housing Authority, which completed it in 1936. The project was planned as a gut rehabilitation, with one of three tenements torn down to provide extra light and air, but architect Frederick L. Ackerman and his engineers soon discovered that the 19th century tenements were too fragile to be reconstructed. So they were torn down and First Houses was built from scratch, with a small number of the original foundation supports being used. The project reused bricks and employed dozens of workers on relief paid for by the federal government. Ackerman designed the apartment buildings with rear entrances and courtyards to allow more light and air than existing tenements. The cobbled open areas behind the buildings provided playgrounds, trees, benches and sculptures for the tenants. Although First Houses cost far more than anticipated, Housing Authority chairman Langdon Post said it was worth it. "In the first place... it has taken the question of public housing out of the realm of debate and into the realm of fact. Second, it has established the Authority as an agency for the issuance of slum clearance bonds. Both Vincent Astor and Bernard M. Baruch accepted the Authority’s bonds to cover payments for the land - the first such bonds ever issued. In the third place, it provided an opportunity to test the Authority’s power to condemn land for slum clearance - a test which we won. Fourth, in Mayor La Guardia’s words, it provided us with 'Boondoggling Exhibit A.'" The test which the Housing Authority won was the right to exercise the powerful tool of eminent domain. The owner of two tenements on East 3rd Street contended that seizing his property, even with compensation, contravened the constitutions of the United States and New York State. The New York State Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state, ruled that the Housing Authority could seize private property: "Whenever there arises, in the state, a condition of affairs holding a substantial menace to the public health, safety or general welfare, it becomes the duty of the government to apply whatever power is necessary and appropriate to check it."
