Wells Homes consisted of rowhouses, mid-rises, and high-rise apartment buildings, first constructed 1939 to 1941 to house African American tenants.

Wells (1862-1931), the civil rights advocate and investigative journalist, had lived nearby in the decades before the Homes were built, and The Light of Truth Ida B.

[2][3][4] It was the fourth public housing project constructed in Chicago before World War II and was much larger than the others, with 1,662 units.

[12] The 30-minute audio documentary Ghetto Life 101, released in 1993, was made by two teenagers from the project, LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman.

Their second audio documentary, Remorse: The 14 Stories of Eric Morse, which won a Peabody Award,[13] deals with the murder of 5-year-old Eric Morse in the project on October 13, 1994; he was pushed from the window of a vacant 14th-floor apartment by two older boys (aged 10 and 11) after he refused to steal candy for them.

[20] Construction began in 2003 on the mixed-income community of Oakwood Shores, which will replace all three housing projects, Ida B.