Sursum Corda (Latin: "lift up your hearts") is a small neighborhood located in Washington, D.C., bounded by North Capitol Street on the east, K Street NW to the south, New Jersey Avenue NW to the west, and New York Avenue NW to the north. The neighborhood draws its name for the Sursum Corda Co-operative Apartments, a 199-unit low-income housing complex constructed in 1968. The area became a notorious open-air drug market plagued by violence and poverty in the 1980s. After a notorious 2004 murder in the neighborhood, demolition and complete renovation of the low-income housing in Sursum Corda was announced in 2007. Little of the redevelopment happened, although extensive demolition occurred. History Residential neighborhoods north of Massachusetts Avenue underwent a prolonged decay in the first half of the 20th century. Controversial urban renewal plans of the 1950s and 1960s called for massive demolition of the area, part of it comprising the old Irish American neighborhood of Swampoodle. The plans though were only partially executed. Sursum Corda Co-operative Various Masonic and religious organizations took advantage of loan programs of the recently created U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to build housing for some of the displaced households. A group of Catholic activists from the nearby Gonzaga College High School and the parish of St. Aloysius conceived of a new urban village to house some of the households displaced by the demolitions. They also received support from the D.C. Public Housing Authority and the then-Senator from New York, Robert F. Kennedy. The leading organizer and founder of the Cooperative was Eugene L. Stewart, an alumnus of Georgetown University. In 1965, Stewart was approached as a member of the Georgetown Alumni Association and asked if the Association would become involved by sponsoring a low income housing project. The idea presented to him was for students and alumni to assist with tutoring the poor and their children in the community. Stewart presented the ideas to the Alumni Board of Governors, but the plan was rejected. He formed Sursum Corda, Inc. and oversaw the construction of the Sursum Corda Cooperative. Construction on the new development began in 1967. It was named Sursum Corda, a Latin expression meaning "Lift up your hearts" (which is intoned at the start of the Eucharistic Prayer during the Mass). The original plan called for 155 resident-owned and 44 rental townhouses on four acres (16,000 m²), arranged on courtyards