Field of Dreams

This chapter describes the construction, organization, and physical appearance of Ethel Lawrence Homes (EHL) and assesses the aesthetics relative to other housing in the area. Bringing affordable housing to her hometown of Mount Laurel was very much Ethel Lawrence's dream. She never gave up the fight for affordable housing in Mount Laurel and the entire state of New Jersey has benefitted from it. Although Ethel Lawrence participated in all of the litigation and court hearings and was active in the early phases of project planning, her health declined in the 1990s and she passed away in July of 1994 at the age of sixty-eight, with her dream of affordable housing in Mount Laurel still unrealized. In her honor the future housing project was baptized the “Ethel R. Lawrence Homes.”