Langdon W. Post

Langdon Ward Post was born in New York City on April 10, 1899. He was born into the Post political family; his uncle was state assemblyman Regis Henri Post, his distant cousin was former state assemblyman Erastus F. Post, and his great-great-great-great-grandfather was Federalist congressman Jotham Post Jr.{{cite web |last1=Kestenbaum |first1=Lawrence |title=Post family of New York City, New York |url=https://politicalgraveyard.com/families/19675.html |website=politicalgraveyard.com |access-date=12 February 2025}}

Shortly after graduating from St. Mark’s School, Post enlisted in the U.S. Army in August 1917, serving in the First Trench Mortar Battery of the 1st Infantry Division of the American Expeditionary Forces. He was honorably discharged in May 1919, and graduated from Harvard College in February 1923.{{cite book |last1=Malcolm |first1=James |title=New York Red Book, 1929 |date=1929 |publisher=J. B. Lyon Company |location=Albany |page=83 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4046287&seq=109 |access-date=12 February 2025}}

Post proceeded to work several jobs; he worked in a factory, in the Oklahoma oil fields, and in a brokerage office before joining the staff of the New York Evening World in 1925.

File:Langdon W. Post 1929.jpg

Post first ran for public office in 1927, campaigning for State Assembly in the 10th New York County district as a Democrat. Losing by just 529 votes, Post tried again the next year and narrowly won with 440 votes.{{cite web |title=Post, Langdon W. |url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=54251 |website=ourcampaigns.com |access-date=13 February 2025}}

Post was re-elected in 1929, 1930 and 1931, serving at the same time as governor Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the State Assembly, he became an ally of the governor's and aided in the passage of housing legislation.{{cite news |last1=Dunlap |first1=David |title=LANGDON W. POST, 82, DEAD; HOUSING AND LABOR ADVISOR |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/05/obituaries/langdon-w-post-82-dead-housing-and-labor-advisor.html |access-date=12 February 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=5 September 1981 |location=New York}} He also authored a bill to protect young girls from being convicted on prostitution charges on the uncorroborated testimony of a single witness.{{cite magazine |author= |date=14 February 2025 |title=United Action Is Essential |url=https://archive.org/details/per_equal-rights-magazine_equal-rights_1931-02-14_17_2/page/14/mode/1up |magazine=Equal Rights |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=National Woman's Party |page=14 |access-date=13 February 2025}}

Post was once again a candidate for re-election in 1932, but his anti-Tammany stances led to his replacement on the Democratic ballot line,{{cite news |title=Tammany names LaChappelle for legislative seat |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/475727050/?match=1&terms=%22langdon%20post%22 |access-date=13 February 2025 |work=The Post-Star |date=24 August 1932 |location=Glens Falls}} forcing him to run under the Citizens Union ticket. He came in third place with 24% of the vote, splitting the Democratic vote and leading to the election of future United States Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr.

In the 1933 elections, Post allied with former congressman Fiorello La Guardia, who was running for mayor of New York City, and became the Republican-City Fusion candidate for Manhattan Borough President. Although he narrowly lost, La Guardia won, the first Republican (and first anti-Tammany) candidate to do so in 20 years.{{cite news |author= |date=8 November 1933 |title=La Guardia long foe of machine |url=https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=tnd19331108-01.1.2&e=------193-en-20--1--txt-txIN-guardia----1933----- |work=The Nassau Daily Review |location=Freeport |publisher= |access-date=3 February 2025}} Post was rewarded with the position of tenement house commissioner and was sworn in on January 1, 1934.{{cite news |title=LaGuardia Sworn in as Mayor of N. Y. at Simple Ceremony |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1039099424/?match=1&terms=%22Langdon%20W.%20Post%22%20%22tenement%20house%20commissioner%22 |access-date=12 February 2025 |work=The Washington Daily News |date=1 January 1934 |location=Washington, D.C.}}

The next month, the New York City Housing Authority was established to carry out "the clearance, replanning, and reconstruction of the areas in which unsanitary or substandard housing conditions exist." Charged with appointing all five of its members, La Guardia chose Post to serve as its chairman.{{cite news |title=Mayor selects housing board; Post chairman |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/543789179/?match=1&terms=Post%20Vladeck%20Pink%20Moore |access-date=12 February 2025 |work=Brooklyn Citizen |date=13 February 1934 |location=Brooklyn}} His colleagues were social worker Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch, housing advocate Louis H. Pink, Jewish Daily Forward general manager Baruch Charney Vladeck, and Catholic priest Edward R. Moore. Their budget, secured by La Guardia from Public Works Administration head Harold Ickes, was $25 million, a fourth of the PWA's entire housing budget.{{cite book |last=Kessner |first=Thomas |date=1989 |title=Fiorello H. La Guardia and the Making of Modern New York |url=https://archive.org/details/fiorellohlaguard00kess/page/323/mode/1up |location=New York |publisher=McGraw-Hill Publishing Company |page=323 |isbn=0870681907 |access-date=3 February 2025}}

File:Housing heads get together. Washington, D.C., Nov. 17. Attending the Annual Conference of Mayors today, were left to right- Mayor La Guardia of New York, Nathan Straus, of the United States LCCN2016872615.jpg at the Annual Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C., November 17, 1937]]

During his time in these positions, Post was credited with improving conditions in Old Law Tenements and presiding over the construction of new public housing projects like the Williamsburg Houses in Brooklyn. He also spoke out about the "tragic" and "appalling" housing conditions of New York City's African-American population.{{cite news |title=Jim Crow housing, job bias back of Harlem conditions |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/693157698/?match=1&terms=%22Langdon%20W.%20Post%22 |access-date=13 February 2025 |work=California Eagle |date=30 December 1937 |location=Los Angeles}}

He crossed party lines in 1934 to endorse Vladeck, a Socialist, for Congress in the 8th district.{{cite news |title=Tammany Diet |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/685953661/?match=1&terms=%22langdon%20w%20post%22%20%22housing%20authority%22%20vladeck |access-date=13 February 2025 |work=Brooklyn Eagle |date=26 October 1934 |location=Brooklyn}} They both joined the American Labor Party in 1936,{{cite news |title=Post takes issue with Gov. Landon |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/577606924/?match=1&terms=%22Langdon%20W.%20Post%22%20%22American%20Labor%22 |access-date=13 February 2025 |work=Brooklyn Times-Union |date=10 October 1936 |location=Brooklyn}} with Post standing as the party's candidate for New York State Comptroller in 1938 and New York City Councilman from Manhattan in 1939, both times unsuccessfully.

Post held the offices of tenement house commissioner and NYCHA chairman until 1937, when friction with mayor La Guardia led him to resign in anger.{{cite news |title=Post Reports Drop in Toll of Tenement Fires |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/415989474/?match=1&terms=%22Langdon%20W.%20Post%22 |access-date=12 February 2025 |work=Daily News |date=2 January 1938 |location=New York}}{{cite news |title=LaGuardia hit by housing aide |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1044816935/?match=1&terms=%22Langdon%20W.%20Post%22 |access-date=12 February 2025 |work=Washington Times-Herald |date=2 December 1937 |location=Washington, D.C.}} He moved to the West Coast in 1940 and became regional director of the Federal Public Housing Authority, serving until the agency's dissolution in 1947. He had previously served as assistant federal relief administrator, where he helped create the Works Progress Administration.

Post remained active in Democratic Party politics and contributed to a number of magazines and papers. He served as a field representative for the Job Corps from 1965 until his retirement in 1972. He died of heart failure on September 2, 1981, in San Francisco.

• [https://archive.org/details/challengeofhousi0000lang The Challenge of Housing] (1938). New York: Farrar & Rinehart.

• [https://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=54251 Our Campaigns - Post, Langdon W.]
• {{Commons-inline}}

{{Reflist|2}}

{{s-start}}

{{s-par|us-ny-hs}}

{{succession box | title = New York State Assembly
New York County, 10th District | before = Phelps Phelps | years = 1929-1932 | after = Herbert Brownell Jr. }}

{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Post, Langdon W.}}

Category:1899 births

Category:1981 deaths

Category:Members of the New York State Assembly

Category:Politicians from Manhattan

Category:20th-century members of the New York State Legislature

Category:Public housing in New York City

Category:Harvard College alumni

Category:Fiorello La Guardia political appointees