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Gratz Park Terrace, 1997

A 1997 photograph of Gratz Park Terrace, Gratz, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. The photo appeared in a Gratz history published the same year. This property is significant to the borough and its residents in that it provides 32 units of safe, affordable housing to long-time residents of Gratz, particularly seniors and those with disabilities, who want to stay in the community, but along with other reasons can no longer afford the upkeep of a single family home.

Photo caption:

The land for this housing project was purchased from Hepler about 1982, in anticipation of building the facility as low income housing.  The project was finished about 1984, and since then a number of tenants, mostly from other areas have lived in the complex.

At the time that Gratz Park Terrace was built, a group of residents including those who were part of the local historical society, were openly opposed to the project. Gratz, at the time, was nearly an all-white community, and these residents feared an influx of people from the other side of the mountain, meaning African Americans from Harrisburg. When the historical society compiled the town history, they gave only a half page to the Gratz Park Terrace, including the photo and caption given above, yet other properties of much less significance were given several pages of text in the more than 900 page history.

It is clear from the description in the Gratz history that the author(s) were writing in code when they referred to the residents as “tenants, mostly from other areas.” The word “tenants” and the word “renters” are used derogatorily when haughty or racist people speak of others who they consider of lower class. In actuality, when the history was written, those doing the writing, with few exceptions, were “from other areas,” i.e. not living in Gratz, but they were all white.

________________________________________

News articles from Newspapers.com.

Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.

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October 9, 2020 Norman Gasbarro

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