EAST VILLAGE, Manhattan — Most people will walk right past 742 East 6th Street and never look twice. A six-story brick building off of Avenue D that was once crumbling and uninhabitable-restored in the 1980s by a little-known group called Habitat for Humanity with a well-known supporter named Jimmy Carter.
Don Kao lives there and had no idea of the building’s significance when he moved in.
“He actually worked on my apartment,” Kao said. “I did not know that until I moved-in and they said, ‘This is the apartment that Jimmy Carter worked on,’ and I said, ‘Oh my God, I feel badly.’ I didn’t even meet the guy.”
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The year was 1984 and the former president was already out of office and had volunteered to help restore the building which was Habitat for Humanity’s first project in New York City.
“When I got there, I saw a terrible six-story building,” Carter said. “It was filled with debris. Eventually, we got 42 people that went up on Trailways bus and had one of the most remarkable experiences of our life. I’d never dreamed, at that point, it might become an annual affair that has just enriched our lives in many ways.”
Rob DeRocker was the project’s executive director.
“The press thought he was going to come, take a few ceremonial hammer swings, and then leave the rest of the work to the volunteers that he had brought up from Georgia,” DeRocker said. “Nothing could be further from the truth. He was the first one on the job. And they had to get him to knock-off the job at the end of each day.”
President Carter spent a total of ten days working on the apartment with Secret Service agents stationed outside the apartment and on the street. At the time, the Lower East Side had the highest murder rate in the entire city.
President Carter’s work in New York made national headlines and put the not-for-profit on the map. It was the first of many projects for the former president and former first lady, Roslyn Carter. Building homes for people in need all over the world.
Years later, President Carter returned to East 6th Street for a reception.
“That time he came, I think he must have been 90 and he was ready to go out to Queens to build a house after we did the reception and the press conference,” Kao said. “I mean, who does that? No, I’ve always been very impressed by him. I will always remember him.”
A legacy of Jimmy Carter’s private life that will live on in New York.
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The 98-year-old former president has “decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family,” the Carter Center said in a statement.
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