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Home , Festival marketplace, The Rouse Company

TheConscienceof ESrcUSE A abion of decenthousing for the poor noar driaesthe'man ushogaue us gJitzymalls and festiual marketPlaces.

BY ROBERTK. LANDERS

ow startingthe eighthdecade of his excePtional life, developer)ames Wilson Rouse is a deceptivelyordinaryJooking man' A caricaturistwould have to make do with a lopsidedgrin, a bald and mottled head(gray hair still valiantly in posses- sion of the outskirts), tortoise-shell glasses,tufted eyebrowsthat resolutely go their own ways and, PerhaPs,a silver-and-goldtie pin he wears,a sym- bol of Columbia, Md.-the trim utopia he createdmidway betweenBaltimore and .The Pin is a little figure with arms upraised,gingerbread humanity reachingout. Simple,yet quite possiblyprofound, the imageseems a fit one, not only for Rouse'shopeful vision of mankind but for Jim Rousehimself , ever striving to reachout and give mankind an assist. In his benevolentbearing there is no hint of the imperial.Neither his bus- inesssuccess nor the great impact he has had on the American scenehas led him to supposehimself a god. His head is unswelled-but far from emPtY. "He's a man of ideas,"said the late Morton Hoppenfeld,an architectand long-timeassociate. "He's a wizard in termsof financingand economicideas, as well as marketing and merchandis- ing and ideas about quality of life. What he can do with numberswill bog- gle your mind." Financial wizardtY underwrote Rouse'sfar-sighted ideas. During the 1950sand'60s, he and his development firm, The RouseComPanY, helPed to give new meaning to the word mall and so, in a sense,to suburbia itself. Their HarundaleMall, which openedin Glen

Hrsronrc PnesenvertoN Burnie,Md., in 1958,was among the uay ahead of our performance-we first suchenclosed Edens in the coun- haven't done that much." Ambling try. Rouse led-and the malling of down the hall and greeting everyone he suburbiafollowed. meets, he seemsan old-fashioned figure '80s, Then, during the 1970sand from mythic America-working hard Rouseand company,hot on thedemo- and living happily in some impossibly graphictrail back to urbia, confounded virtuous small-town Arcadia. the usualhidebound skeptics and suc- Rouse'smanner may conjure up the ceededin giving new allure to several quaint America of Norman Rockwell, historic port cities, in the form of but his great successes,and perhaps vibrant "festivalmarketplaces." Faneuil more admirable failures, have taken Hall Marketplacein Bostonand Har- place in a larger, more complicated and borplacein Baltimorewere immense altogetherless satisfactory world-the successes. real one. Rousehas been praised for imagina- He was born to af f luence on tively preservinghistory, as well as 's Eastern Shore, the son of criticizedfor giving it an unrealistic "If you uanted to do a canned-goods broker and the young- gloss-Rouse-ification,the process has anythingabout these est of six children. He grew up happily been dubbed. The company'sSouth in the small town of Easton. But in the StreetSeaport in Manhattangot mixed kinds of issues,yot) late 1.920s, his father lost almost reviewsat its openingtwo yearsago. everything. Then, in 1930, came a "Somethingwas lost as well as gained had to do them-you series of hammer blows. His mother in convertinga blue-collarneighbor- couldn't be trying to died in February, his father died in hood into a kind of outdoor mall," August and the bank foreclosed on wrote Christian ScienceMonitor ar- get somebodyelse to their home in October. Rouse, newly chitecturalcritic JaneHoltz Kay. graduated from high school, was 16. Still, glittery"outdoor malls" arising do them." Even then, optimism stirred within in the centersof cities once thought him. "Of course, I knew we were get- doomedrepresented good news,excit- ting into the Depression,and the whole ing news.And in 198L,Time canonized Rousehimself, this avuncularfigure economy wasn't too good, but I can Rousein a coverstory, callinghim "an sippingdiet Spritefrom a Styrofoam remember feeling-and, in a way, feel urban visionary" with "a unique and cup as he sits at a round table in his a little embarrassed about feeling-that uncannyability to blendcommerce and modestlyappointed office in Columbia this was really good for me, that I was showmanshipinto a magnetizingforce and talkswith a visitor. going to have to make it and that I was in the inner city." Rousehas never pretendedto be a youn8. '32,'33, Thus anointed,and retiredsinceL979 corporatemanager, according to Mort "As the yearswent on, 1931, from The RouseCompany, Jim Rouse Hoppenfeld."He doesn'tengage in the I remember how much luckier I used to is now attemptingan even more im- disciplinesof gettingthings done; he feel than those older men whose lives pressivefeat. He is seekingto make bringspeople around him to do that." were really blown apart. . . . It was a housingfor the poor in America'scities Yet he is very much involved in the im- very, very tough, tough, tough time for, fit and livable. And to financehis cause portant decisions,wants to know every fine people who had thought their lives he is continuingto dot the urbanland- detailand, in the words of Enterprise were secure.I've never quite forgotten scapewith festivalmarketplaces, albeit DevelopmentPresident Aubrey Cor- that. The Depression hangover is a smaller ones, in medium-sizedcities man, is "relentlessin his insistencethat very substantial one; you never can from Norfolk, Va., to Toledo, . thingsbe done the right way." really feel safe." Rouse'sgrand crusadebegan in 1981. When not in his office,Rouse is often Survivor Rouse went to the Univer- He formed the nonprofit Enterprise not far away, working in the unpreten- sity of Maryland night law school in Foundationto aid neighborhoodhous- tious Columbia home he shareswith 1933 and got a job parking cars. In ing groups,and, at the sametime, he hiswife, Patty. A formercommissioner 1,934hegot a better job-legal clerk in created the EnterpriseDevelopment of the Redevelopmentand Housing the new Federal Housing Administra- Company as its for-profit subsidiary. Authority of Norfolk, Va., she is in- tion's office. Two years later Until the company is in the black, volved in Enterprise,too. They work he persuaded the Title Guarantee & however,the foundationmust depend togetherat their dining-roomtable or Trust Company to let him set up a mainly on corporate and individual on their bright porch with its wide view mortgage department; he would find donations.By the middle'90s,our fore- of man-madeWilde Lake. insurance companies daring enough to castsays that we'll be able to pour $5 About to headfor home this even- buy the new and controversial FHA million to $10 million a year into the ing, Rouse,the last to leave,closes up mortgages, and then he would sell them foundation," Rousesays. Enterprise Development's offices. to the insurance companies. In 1939 he Servingas chairman of the board Fumblingfor the right door key, he tells and another young man, Hunter Moss, and chief executiveofficer of both is his visitor that Enterpriselspublicity "is borrowed $20.000 and formed their

DecrvsrR 1985 67 own mortgage-bankingfirm in Balti- gress than with it. "I really found The actual program that followed more, The Moss-RouseCompany. It myself making a very important deci- turned out to be less comprehensive eventually became Rouse Real Estate sion: If you wanted to do anything than Rouse had hoped, but he still Financeand was sold last year to the aboutthese kinds of issues,you had to maintainsthat urban renewalwas, on Paine-WebberGroup, Inc. for stock do them-you couldn'tbe trying to get the whole, a great success."American valued at $50.5 million. somebodyelse to do them." citiesare enormously better off ascities Just as an FHA clerkshiphad led He soon got directly involved in an than they would ever have beenwith- Rouseto mortgagebanking, so mort- effort to improve slum housing in out it," he says. gage banking was to lead him to Baltimore,using what he now calls"the Although he considers urban re- developmentand his profound concern primitive instrument" of vigorous en- newalto havebeen a success,Rouse did with the urban condition. forcementof existinglaws. "ln a block tell Life magazine in the mid 1960s, "l think that if you're in real estate with fewer than 400 people," Rouse when he was bringing Columbia into financeor development,"he reflects, recalls,"they killed 450rats, took out being: "lf I had all the dollars in the "you're automatically drawn into a 46 truckloadsof debrisand requiredin- urban-renewalprogram, I would take much deeper,wider spectrumof urban stallationof insidetoilets." The effort them all and put them on the line to life than a manufactureror a banker or was then expandedto a 23-block area produceone real imageof what a city a merchant, unless he reachesout. near JohnsHopkins University. The couldbe." That's becausewhat you're doing is anti-slumeffort was only modestlysuc- Rouseoriginally hoped that Colum- financing, or developing,the piecesof cessful,however, and most of the gains bia would be so dramatica successthat a city, and, therefore,the city is your it would be widely imitated.That did playing field." not happen.Columbia was a success, But before all that could happen, but not, in financialterms, a stunning World War II intervened, thrusting success.There have been no imitators. Rouseinto Naval Air Intelligenceand Columbiawas not Rouse'sonly at- serviceon the staff of the commander tempt at arranginga dramatic demon- of the Air ForcePacific Fleet-"a very, strationof urbanpotential. Nor hashe very fascinatingjob with remarkable stoppedtrying. The EnterpriseFounda- people."They, in turn, found Rouse tion is hoping to get one city, perhaps pretty remarkablehimself, not leastat two, to join it in a commitment to playingpoker. "During his entiretour make all the housingin that city fit and of duty in ," author Boyd Gib- livable within a decade. bons writes in Wye Island, "Jim Rouse drew no Navy pay; he lived entirelyon his card winnings." "ln A block TDithfezuer It was a springday, a decadeago, and Someof those"remarkable people" RosaSmith could scarcelybelieve her he got to know during-the war, men than 400 people,they ears.A white woman, BarbaraMoore, suchas investmentbanker August Bel- killed 450 rats, took was actuallyinviting her to lunch in her mont, were to be extremelyhelpful to home. Smith went, expectingto eat Rousein the 1950s.when he was get- out 46 truckloadsof from a paperplate "so that it could be ting into shopping-centerdevelopment. thrown out afterwards.But it was en- That was in the future, however.The debrisand required tirely different. . . . It was just so war over, Rousereturned to Baltimore, installationof inside wonderful,so nice." mortgagebanking-and involvement Certainly, nothing like that had ever in urban affairs. During the late 1940s, toilets." happenedback in RockyMount, N.C., he appearedbefore congressional com- where Smith, a sharecropper's mitteesin Washingtonand testifiedon daughter,had grown up. Shehad ven- behalf of the Mortgage Bankers proved transient. Still, the experience tured north to Washington,D.C., in Association.Although he was strong- was valuableto him. 1965,coming alone.She was 17. She ly in favor of urban redevelopment,he The "gingerbread man" in Rouse had droppedout of schoolin the tenth opposedpublic housing. He argued,as reachedout well beyond Baltimore. grade, given birth and left her son he remembers."that the real iob in Serving as a member of President behind to be raisedby her mother. America-then and now-is to make Eisenhower'sAdvisory Committeeon In Washington,Smith found work at the existinghousing inventory fit and Housing Programs and Policies variousplaces, butby 1973,she was on livable." Once that "real job" were (1953-4),Rouse recalls, he had iust read welfare. the mother of three more done,with governmentassistance, then Miles Colean's RenetoingOur Cities children. and living with them in a therewould be only a residualneed for and, working late,came up at threeone crampedapartment. That November, public housing. morningwith thephrase urban reneu.tal in searchof more room. shereluctant- Rousecame away from Washington to describethe aim of a comprehensive ly moved into the Ritz, an apartment somewhatdisillusioned and thinking he program of redevelopment,rehabilita- building in the Adams-Morgansection might be able to do more without Con- tion and conservation. which, despite its name, was in

62 HlsronrcPltrstnverror'r wretched condition and "a little and now the Enterprisenetwork has dangerous."The elevatorin the five- grown, at last count, to 42 neighbor- story tenementdid not work, and there hood groupsin 22 cities,among them were no trash pickups. Frustrated Denver,, Detroit, Chicagoand residentsleft their garbagein hallways, . threw it out windows, droppedit down The foundation'sassistance comes in stairwells.The stenchwas terrible,the variousforms. Enterprisehas provided rats were big. more than $5 million in loansand some Unbeknown to Smith, the 60-unit grants."We generallysee our money Ritz and a smallerapartment building as what we call linchpin money," ex- nearby, the Mozart, had just been plainsRouse. "lt's moneyto tie together bought by Jim Rouse. other money that we canbring in to do Rouse, who remained in the that Iparticular] project." Enterprise background,was actingin concertwith also offerstechnical advice on rehabil- BarbaraMoore and severalother mem- itation and financing.It has set up a bers of the Church of the Saviourin group to find new ways to cut rehabil- "We belieaeuJe're Washington,who had formed Jubilee itation costs,and it has establisheda zuorkingon a problem Housing, .a non-profit corporation. for-profitsubsidiary to raisemoney at Jubileeleased the two buildingsfrom low rates. of crucial importance Rouseand ran them. (In 1978. with With help from Enterprise,more funds it raisedand a mortgagefrom than 1,200housing units have been or to our country and Rouse, Jubilee bought the building are being rehabilitated,according to our ciuilization." from him.) Edward Quinn, the f oundation's "WhenJubilee came in," RosaSmith president. remembers,"l didn't like them, and no That, of course,is nowherenear the one else in the building liked them, 8.7 million very-low-incomehouse- investmentsdowntown. becausewe assumedthat thesewhite holds in America said to be living in Speakingone night last winter in the people were coming to clean up the rental housingthat is physicallyinade- Grand Ballroomof 's Plaza building and move all of us out." quate,too crowdedor too costly. Hotel, Rouse told the well-dressed Then Smith went to one of Jubilee's Rouse and Quinn freely flower of the constructionindustry in Saturdaywork partiesand discovered acknowledgethat only with federal his earnestand passionateway: "We're that shecould usea hammerand paint moneyand cities'involvementcan the working through a foundationwith the brush.In thoseearly years, volunteers massiveproblem be solved. Mean- mentality of business,with an entre- at the two buildingsput in more than while, however, there are people in preneurial spirit. . . instead of just 50,000hours, working to correcthun- neighborhoods,people with money- standingback before theseproblems dredsof housing-codeviolations. and Enterprise. and looking for governmenthelp . . . . RosaSmith later becamethe salaried "Our wholeconviction," Quinn says We believewe're working on a problem managerof the Ritz and the Mozart. passionately, "is that there are of crucial importanceto our country Sheis one of Jubilee'ssuccess stories. thousands,hundreds of thousands, and our civilization." There are others. millionsof peopleout therewho real- And Jim Rouse does not seem to Jubileeacquired more buildings, got ly want to do good. If you provide a doubt seriouslythat the problem is a $1.5 million HUD grant in 7978and processwhere peoplewith resources, capableof rationalsolution. He is, on won increasing corporate support. evenmodest resources, can be linked principle, an optimist. "l don't feel Jubileealso spawnedallied enterprises, up with people with needs.. . then obligedto be practical,in thecommon among them JubileeJobs, a nonprofit you'll find peopleresponding." judgmentof what's practical,"he ex- employment agencywhich last year Whether peopleen massewill res- plains. "I feel that it is legitimateto placed558 peoplein unskilledjobs. pond so generouslyto theplight of the searchfor the best that might be and Still, "This is tough stuff," Rouse ill-housedpoor remains to be seen. try to make it happen,rather than to observes."There aren't poor peoplesit- More certain, however,is their will-, searchfor all the practicalreasons that ting there, just waiting to be served, ingnessto spendmoney on themselves will preventwhat might be." and in go white peopleand theyfix up at Rouse-style marketplaces. The His thinking seems resolutely apartmentsand it all goesalong in a Waterside,a $13.8 million develop- hopeful,rather than foolishlywishful. merry way. These are real battle- ment on the ElizabethRiver in Norfolk, He well knows that his dreamsmay go groundswhere this is going on." was Enterprise Development's first unfulfilled,but still he is doing his im- The exampleof Jubilee,dealing with majorproject. A joint venturewith the pressive best now on behalf of the "broken people" as much as broken city, it openedin 1983 and, by every poor-and hoping the rest of ginger- buildings,inspired more than just the account,has been a hugesuccess. And bread humanity will join him. HP creation of severalsimilar groups in it not only createdabout 1,300new Baltimore, Oakland and elsewhere. jobsbut alsostimulated, by someesti- Robert K. Landersis a usriteruith the Jubileeled Rouseto createEnterprise, mates,more than $100 million in fresh Voiceof America in Washington,D.C.

UECEMBER IYd5 bJ zo 4 From the Editor The Illusionist's Art Our Global Village By ReginaSchrambling 6 Letters Photographsby Bob Sacha Using time-honoredtechniques, 9 Focus on the Trust wood grainerMarylou Davis turns A TennesseeUtopia ordinary pine into shimmering Open House: hardwoodsand marble. T4 Cupertino,Calif,; tt Hyattsuille,Md. cz Home Work Big Gamble in New Haven 23 Working With Windouts By Andrew Alexander Photographsby Bob Sacha E 64 Ventures Novel plans to revitalizea Baltimore,Md.; downtown district hinge on getting Lexington,Ky. landownersto pool their property and money. 70 Books 52 AII About Bungalorus; 38 The Lighthouse:Endangered Holiday Book List Country Treasures Species? 74 Moneysworth By William Seale By Rachel Cox and Michael Botaker Cutting Cornerson Photographsby Erik Kualsuik In an age of automation, the Contractors Spectacularcountry housesowned survival of a beloved anachronism by the National Trust recall depends on community action and 76 Going Places America'sarchitectural debt creative new uses. GrandResorts to Britain. 84 AfterWords 60 Justa Little Train Trip 50 The Conscienceof Survival Story fames Rouse By Augusta Mutchler By Robert Landers COVER: KenoshaLight on Lake has safeguardedmariners since 1906. In After restoringa Texasfarmhouse, A vision of decent housing for the 7962 its keeper was replaced by an a good-humoredhomeowner recalls poor now drives the man who gave automated light. An article beginson page the ordeal. us the "." 52. Photograph by John and Ann Mahan.

National Trust for Historic Preservation; Department of Developmentand Communications Vrcr PnesroeNr,Roeenr H. Ancre, Eorron,THovas J. Cor-rr'r'Assocrerr Eorrort,RecHn S. Cox' PnooucrtoruEortol<, JaNr B. Hooven DesrcN,Tolr Suzuxr,Eorrontar- INrrnNs, McNrtn Eerox, BansanaMvens AovenrrsrNcMeNecen, Cenorr KneeveniSALES AsstsrArur, J. Davlo Saolrlt. Jn.,(202) 673-4065

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HISTORIC PRESERVATION (USPS 358'830) is published bimonthly by the Nafiorra/ frrst sponsored by the Library of Congress, LC Number 59-41756, ISSN 018-2419. for Histotic Prcsercatioil. I785 MassachusettsAvenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) Second-classpostage paid at Washington, D.C. POSTMASTER: Send address chanSes to 673 4000. NTHP/Membership Dept., 1785 MassachusettsAve., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. The .1985 National Trust for Historic Preservation. The contents of Historic Preseroation are National Trust assumesno responsibilityfor the content of advertisements.To raiseadditional protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in any manner without written consent. revenues,the Trust may make its mailing list available to selectortanizations. Members who The magazine is available on microfilm from Xerox University Microfilm. 300 North Zeeb r{ant their names deleied should notify the Membership Dept. by letter. tl.S.A. newsstand Road, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48106. The magazine is included in the Talking Books program distribution by EasternNews Distributors, Inc., 1130 Road, Sandusky, Ohio 44870.

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