Constructed in 1941 on 40 acres in southeast Newport News, Stuart Gardens Apartments is a significant local example of a large-scale, publicly financed housing complex, built by the Defense Homes Corporation with funds from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s programs to promote military preparedness during World War II. Comprised of 109 buildings containing 490 rental units, Stuart Gardens provided rental housing for servicemen and civilian wartime production workers and their families during the war and, unlike many wartime housing projects, was intended to remain a permanent part of the community after the conflict. Designed by Washington, D.C. architect William N. Denton, Jr., the Stuart Gardens Apartments embody garden apartment design principles of the period, with repetitive forms and interior plans, minimal Colonial Revival detailing, and open courtyards and green spaces reflecting Federal Housing Administration requirements for standardization, economy, and rapid construction in the provision of quality housing.