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October 1941. "Schoot's Court [i.e., Schott’s Alley], Washington, D.C.; Senate Office Building is in the background. Four very small dark rooms rent for 15 and 18 dollars per month with water and privy in yard. It used to rent for 6 and 8 dollars. Frank Coles and his friend are sitting on the bench. He was a cement plasterer but has been on relief during the past year. He has frequent heart attacks and his feet and ankles are all swollen. Doctor advises a chicken and lamb diet, no pork or beef, but he doesn't even have money to buy fuel. He can't get waited on in a clinic or get to one. He waited from before 11 until 4 p.m. but still could not see a doctor. He has been in Washington since 1906." Photo by Marion Post Wolcott. View full size.
I wanna know what's in the basket on the second floor window ledge.
There is something jarring about these tenements, I'm guessing, being right across the street (?) from the Russell Senate Office Building. Or, perhaps, healthy that the Senators would have occasion to see "how the other half lives"?
Either way, the people in the picture look like people I would have loved to know. There is a sparkle there in their eyes that just can't be bought.
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