Rose Hill Narratives - BiRacial History Project

Who lived in these houses? Click or tap on the address to learn what our research revealed about Rose Hill homesteads’ residents between 1892 and 1942. (In parentheses are the pre-1928 house numbers.)

1 – 441 Mayson Ave N (119 Smith St)
2 – 437 Mayson Ave N (117 Smith St)
3- 431 Mayson Ave N (93/115 Smith St)
4- 425 Mayson Ave N (91/113 Smith St)
H – 413 A & B Mayson Ave N
5 – 1485 Savage Ave (3)
6 – 1493 Savage Ave (5)
7 – 1497 Savage Ave (6)
8 – 440 Savage Court
9 – 441 Savage Court
10 – 437 Savage Court
11 – 433 Savage Court

#1 – 441 MAYSON AVE N (119 Smith St)

This narrative is based on the BiRacial History Project and our partners’ research into historic newspaper files, official maps and deeds, Atlanta City Directories (1910-1942), U.S. Federal Censuses (1900-1940), and remembrances of Antioch East Elders and family descendants.

In 1893, twenty-year-old Isom Gordon paid Mrs. Fannie Mayson $175 “cash in hand” for his plot that measured 200 by 50 feet. Mr. Gordon worked for the railroad as a porter and fireman. His wife Cassie worked as a housekeeper and did laundry work at her home. They had four children: Alberta, Herbert, Isom Jr., and Emma. In 1910 Cassie’s mother, Emma Palmer, and a boarder, Elizabeth Toland, who worked as a private family nurse, also lived in the house at 119 Mayson Ave N

From 1900 to 1927 Oscar and Mittie Lyons lived in the house. It is unclear whether they were renters or owners. Mr. Lyons worked as a blacksmith and factory laborer; Mattie worked as a cook. Their children were Eva, Willie, Mary, Thomas, Clarence, Edward, and Ellie. In 1910 they worked as a cook, butler, private home nurse, oil mill laborer, and factory laborers respectively.

Jesse Jefferson, a plasterer, is listed as living at the house in 1922, 1923, 1924, and 1928.

In 1927 and 1928 Gordon Latimore, chauffeur, and wife Elise, resided in the home.

Other listed residents included Iverson Rockmore and Weaver in 1915, and Letitia Jordan in 1920.

441 Mayson was no longer found after 1928 in our city directories’ search. As with a number of Rose Hill properties that became mortgaged, they may have changed hands several times before the City acquired them in 1942 to expand the park for whites-only until 1963.

#2 – 437 MAYSON AVE N (117 Smith St)

In 1893, at age 23, James Lattimore Jr. and his new wife Sofronia bought a 200 X 50 foot land lot from white matron Fannie Mayson for $175 “cash in hand.” Mr. Lattimore held several jobs, including carpenter, butler, chauffeur, porter, and cook. For forty years he worked as a chauffeur and pastry chef for the Harrison family whose land is now part of the Fernbank Science Center. Mrs Sophronia served her community as a midwife and tended to the sick. She worked out of her home as a laundress for white families. Her grandchildren, Catherine and Margaret, told us Sophronia used white clay from Rose Hill ground deposits to starch curtains she stretched to dry on racks. The children chewed the white clay like gum.

The Lattimores had four children on Rose Hill: Gordon, Kate, Eliza, and Joseph. In 1911, Gordon worked as a laborer at the GA Cotton Oil Co. in Edgewood where many local residents were confined to low-paying jobs. Also living in the house were three brothers of Sophronia (Gordon)—Wellington Gordon worked as a driver for City sanitation; Joseph Gordon was in school in 1900; and Ed Gordon worked as a merchant.

In 1915, the Lattimore’s property was valued at $760, including the land, house, livestock, and mechanical tools.

By 1930, James was a widower still living in the house at 117 Mayson Ave N. Although he had no formal education, James was able to read and write. His son Joseph worked as a pieceworker for Southern Bedding Company and also lived at 117 with his wife, Sammie, and their daughters Catherine and Margaret. Joe and Sammie’s younger children, Ralph and Marian, were born later in Edgewood.

Also residing at 117 Mayson in 1930 were James’s married daughter, Eliza Kennedy and her husband, Jesse Kennedy, who worked in an ice cream factory, and their daughter, Doris.

The Latimore family was no longer recorded at this address after the early-1930s. As with a number of Rose Hill properties that became mortgaged, they changed hands several times before the City acquired them in 1942 to expand the park for whites-only until 1963.

#3 – 431 MAYSON AVE N (93/113 Smith St)

The Edgewood Evening Star Lodge #1 was chartered in DeKalb County in 1892 as an association “for social and moral improvement, as well as for charity” and “the erection of a lodge building.” It was an African American institution within the Mayson Ave. Subdivision, also known as the Rose Hill Community. The Lodge was built on land sold to it in 1893 for $1.00 by Rose Hill residents Dan McNeal and Rev. Charles Weldon. They had purchased the land from Mrs. Frances Mayson, a white matron, earlier that year for $175.

After the Antioch Baptist Church’s wooden sanctuary nearby burned to the ground in 1916, the congregation met at the Evening Star Lodge until 1922, while building their stone church across the street. The Lodge had electricity, and as Deacon Ralph Latimore and Sister Mattie Carey Howard recalled, it was a two-story wooden structure with an upper-level door to Mayson Ave. and a lower-level door into the Rose Hill Community. Lodge members held their meetings and rituals here. Ms. Phoebe Luckie Crockett gathered neighborhood children for Boy Scouts and music lessons at the Lodge.

African American Lodges were self-governing bodies that served the community as outlets for Black leadership. They offered spaces where members could speak freely and find support for their ideas. Set up like a corporation, a lodge provided insurance, sick and death benefits to members through subscriptions. During times of public resistance to the formation of Black businesses, the Lodge was one of the few platforms for Black entrepreneurs.

In the 1915 Dekalb County Tax Digest, the Edgewood Evening Star Lodge’s real property is listed as valued at $300, and that year’s taxes of $4.44 paid.

The Lodge building stood until 1942, when along with the other Rose Hill structures and properties, it was removed and the land taken over by the City of Atlanta to enlarge the public park for ‘whites-only,’ until desegregation in 1963.

#4 – 425 MAYSON AVE N (91/113 Smith St)

In 1890, Mrs. Jennie Weldon bought this land lot for $155. cash ‘in hand’ from white matron, Mrs. Frances Mayson. The lot measured 200-feet by 50-feet. It may have been the first African American property purchase on what would become the Rose Hill Community. The deed was reissued in 1893 to (Rev.) Charlie Weldon and Mr. Dan McNeil for $175.

Rev. and Mrs. Weldon were born around 1863. They married in 1888. The couple built their home at 91 Smith Street in 1892 and lived in the house until 1927. As head of the household, Charles R. worked as a Baptist minister, a brick mason, a carpenter, a weaver and a painter. His wife, Jennie, worked as a washer woman, seamstress, and as a maternity nurse. They could both read and write.

Ms. Jennie bore eight children, four of whom survived. Daughter Bessie was born in 1889 and lived in the home. She became Bessie Blue and lived there with her child Charlie Blue, born 1912. Bessie worked as a cook and a hairdresser; she was schooled and could read & write.

Charles and Jennie’s other children raised there included Charles W., born 1890, who was schooled and could read & write; Eugene born 1896; and Emma born 1899.

1927 is the last year we found evidence of Weldon family members in the homestead at then 425 Mayson Ave N

A 1941 Plat Map of the area shows the land lot still listed as the property of Chas. Weldon and his family. The City acquired the property soon after to enlarge the public park for ‘whites-only’ until 1963.

#H – 413 A & B MAYSON AVE N

One of the later-built Rose Hill homesteads, 413 Mayson Ave. N showed records for residents between 1927 and 1942. In 1927 and 1928, John Crockett was a householder at 413-B who worked as a laborer. His wife Phoebe Luckie Crockett was much loved and is remembered at the Antioch East Baptist Church for her extraordinary care of the neighborhood children.

Other residents at 413 Mayson over the years included Mattie Berry, householder and laundress; Beatrice Randall, cook; Robert Bussey, laborer, and his wife Rachael; O.C. Amos, plasterer; Julia West, maid; Andrew Fuller, laborer, and his wife Ida; Joseph Golphin, laborer, and his wife Mary; Mattie M. Williams, maid; Lilian Usher, maid; Ollie M Jackson, maid; Lillian Jones, maid; Bertha Jackson, cook; Essie Jackson, cook; and Virgil Johnson.

Additional Black residents appear in records to have lived on land that became park property in 1922, when renters and structures were removed as a condition of the sale of the land surrounding Rose Hill; the sale was from the Edgewood Realty Company to Atlanta to create a segregated public park and golf course.

More residents named in Atlanta City Directories lived in the Black-owned properties of Rose Hill before the 1942 further displacements and confiscations made by the City to expand the segregated park.

Say their names: Doolin, James Hill (painter, printer), Litt Moore, Luke Wellmaker, Seaborn Wellmaker, William Wellmaker (stone mason), Carlton, Lewis Cooper, Lizzie Russel, John Banks, Joseph Hill, Emma Hill, Charles York, John Weaver, Agnes Johnson, Queenie Turner (maid), Sela Newton (cook), Lizzie Smith (maid), Eula Mathews, John Weaver, Myrtice Johnson (maid), David L Williams, Grady Hooks (delivery man) and Vernice Hooks, Rev James Russell (pastor), Fred Kennedy (porter), Golden Smith (yardman), Ella Smith (maid), Harriett V Snook, Samuel Warren (driver), Josephine Warren, Albert Mays (lather), Mary Lampkin.

#5 – 1485 SAVAGE AVE (3)

In 1892, Thomas Savage bought a 150-foot x 50-foot parcel of land for $200 from white matron Mrs. Frances Mayson; that land became three distinct house lots. Mr. Savage built the house and lived at 3 Savage Avenue, renumbered by the city to 1485 in 1927. He may have been the first to purchase land this far down the hillside; the associated unpaved streets took on his name. Thomas Savage was known to work as a drayman, hauling goods on a flatbed cart drawn by a horse or a mule.

In addition to Mr. Savage, this house became home to a rotating and overlapping set of residents between 1892 until 1942. Among the residents at 1485 Savage Ave. was the head of the household, Miss Pinkie Taylor, born in 1895. She lived in the house from 1927 (or perhaps earlier) until 1942. Her work has been listed in official records as cook and laborer.

Formal education was rare among the adults of Rose Hill. While not everyone was literate, Miss Pinkie and other adults learned to read and write, likely taught by family, friends, or church members. The young people often did attend school.

Other tenants included Miss Pinkie’s sister Ethel Peak, brother Anderson Simons, and sister-in-law Susan Simons. Anderson worked as a gardener, Ethel and Susan as laundresses. It’s likely that, over time, they took other employments and pick-up jobs.

Additional boarders/renters known to have lived at 1485 Savage Avenue at various times were: Bob Jackson, Midas Huff, and Gordon Isom.

In 1942, the residents were displaced and the house was destroyed. These properties were a target of Atlanta’s Slum Clearance Ordinance. The land was then absorbed into the City public park, which was for “whites-only” until 1963.

#6 – 1493 SAVAGE AVE (5)

In 1892, Thomas Savage bought a 150-foot x 50-foot parcel of land for $200 ‘in hand’ from white matron Mrs. Frances Mayson. Mr. Savage was the first Black owner of this land which later became 3 house lots. In 1927, the houses were renumbered by the city to 1485, 1493 and 1497 Savage Ave. Thomas is listed as head of all 3 properties in 1910. He was likely the first to purchase land lots this far down the hillside; the associated unpaved streets took on his name.

The eldest son of Stenson Little, Walter was born in Rose Hill in 1914. Walter lived with his family at 1497 Savage Ave. until he married at age 19.

As a teen, Walter worked in a sandwich shop and later became a gardener and a caddy. It has been suggested that Walter may have been a caddy for Bobby Jones, who played the Candler Park golf course in the late 1920s when it opened.

Like his father Stenson, Walter did not attend school but could read and write. Walter lived in the 1493 Savage Ave. homesite with his own family until 1940. His wife Elizabeth worked as a maid.

The couple had three children: Walter Jr., Herman, and Willie, likely named after her grandmother. The three children received formal education.

In 1930, the Little Family owned both 1947 Savage Ave. and 1943 Savage Ave. valued together at $3,100. According to the US Census, Walter’s annual income was recorded as $288, which is about $5,700 in today’s dollars.

Additional boarders/renters known to have lived at 1943 Savage Ave. in 1927 were Fayette Cauthren and his spouse Hattie. Fayette Cauthren worked as a yardman. Bud Fowler was recorded living at 1493 Savage Ave. in 1919 and working as a laborer.

The property was a target of Atlanta’s Slum Clearance Ordinance of 1942. The land was then absorbed into the City Park which was for “whites only” until 1963.

#7 – 1497 SAVAGE AVE (6)

In 1892, Thomas Savage bought a 150-foot x 50-foot parcel of land for $200 ‘in hand’ from white matron Mrs. Fannie Mayson. Mr. Savage was the first Black owner of this land which later became 3 house lots. In 1927, the houses were renumbered by the city to 1485, 1493 and 1497 Savage Ave. Thomas is listed as head of all 3 properties in 1910. He was likely the first to purchase land lots this far down the hillside; the associated unpaved streets took on his name.

Another longtime resident of 1497 Savage Avenue, Stenson Little was a prominent member of the Rose Hill area. Born in 1879, he could read and write even though he did not receive a formal education. Records indicate Stenson Little worked as an ice cream driver; his job was rather unique compared to those who lived around him.

At the age of 19, Stenson Little married a women named Willie who was 18 and worked as a laundress. They occupied the 1497 Savage Ave. residence at least from 1920 thru 1930. They raised nine children: Walter, Beatrice, Leon, Mimie, Allene, Geneva, Lizzie, Douglas, and Minerva. All nine children survived, which was unusual for the times. In 1930, the Little family owned both residences, 1493 and 1497 valued at $3,100.

Walter, the eldest son lived in the neighboring 1493 Savage Ave. homesite with his own family until 1940. Walter was employed as a gardener and a caddy. There are stories that Bobby Jones used a local caddy when he played the Candler Park golf course; that caddy may have been Walter. Walter’s income in 1936 was $288.

Walter and his wife had three children, Walter Jr., Herman, and Willie, who was likely named after the grandmother. Herman and Willie received an education. In 1940 and 1942, Willie Little is listed as the owner of 1497 Savage Ave., working as a laborer, and living with his wife Lula.

Buck Gordon of the Mayson Ave. Gordon family was recorded as living in the rear at 1497 Savage Ave. in 1919. He was a laborer.

The property was a target of Atlanta’s Slum Clearance Ordinance in 1942. The land was then absorbed into the City Park which was for “whites only” until 1963.

#8 – 440 SAVAGE COURT

As early as 1910, a man named Louis Williams may have been connected with this property. By 1928, the 20-foot by 50-foot house at 440 Savage Court was the rented home of Alfred Davis, a produce peddler, his wife and home maker Mary Davis, and their daughter Mary Davis. Alfred was born in 1879 and his wife Mary around 1888.

In 1930, the Davises were listed in the US Census as renters living at 437 Savage Court, though the house number may be a recorder’s error. Alfred and Mary, according to the census, had not attended school but both could read and write.

Also living at 440 Savage Court in the 1930s were Lena Williams and Lillie Witcher, both maids and cooks; Samuel Williams, a yardman; Virgil Williams, a porter, laborer, and later a waiter; Martha Williams, a laundress; and Lois Williams, a maid. Sam Williams and Martha Williams are listed as residents in 1942.

The City of Atlanta acquired the property in 1942 to enlarge the public park for ‘whites-only’ until 1963.

#9 – 441 SAVAGE COURT

This appears to have been the property of Lewis Williams in 1910 and 1915. By 1928 Martha Williams was the head of the household. Ms. Williams worked as a laundress and is reported in Atlanta City Directories to have lived at this house in 1928 and 1932.

Only a small amount of data was found for residents of the house. Lilly Witcher is listed as a resident at 441 in 1929; she moved to 440 Savage Court in the 1930s. M Saml was connected with the house in 1932 and is reported to have worked as a laborer.

In the 1933 City Directory, Joseph Latimer and his wife Sammie Latimer lived here. They then moved to a home across the street, just north of the Stone Church on the west side of Mayson Ave N Generations of their family lived on Rose Hill from 1892 to early 1930 at 117/437 Mayson Ave N

A plat map from 1941 indicates the Lewis Williams house at 441 Savage Court was then vacant. The City of Atlanta acquired the Rose Hill properties by 1942 to enlarge the public park for ‘whites-only’ until 1963.

#10 – 437 SAVAGE COURT

Jack and Martha Battle had been married for six years when Jack bought the property in 1897 and they built their home at 437 Savage Court. Born in the 1870s, they were the first generation after slavery ended and must have known from their parents and grandparents what life was like before emancipation. The Battles married in 1891 when he was about 19 and she about 16.

In the 1920s Jack Battle worked as a porter for a printing company. Martha Battle worked as a laundress, bringing clothes home from white families to wash, starch, and iron. Latimore Family Elders shared their memories that deposits of white clay in the Rose Hill grounds were used for starch by the local laundry workers and as chewing gum by the children.

Jack had completed the third grade and was able to read and write. Records show Jack and Martha had five children, including two daughters Mary and Martha, and a son Riley, born around 1908. Sons Eddie and Floyd are also shown in the U.S. census records.

By 1940, Jack was almost 70 and a widower. Son Riley, then age 32, lived in the family home as an adult at least from 1934 until 1941. In 1940 Riley lived here with his wife, Mattie Bell Battle, aged 19. Riley’s work is listed as porter and driver. Mattie attained an 8^th grade education.

Around the African-American enclave of Rose Hill, new houses were being built for white residents. The Battle house and other Black homesteads on Rose Hill were smaller, older, and lacked indoor plumbing – like almost half the houses in Atlanta at the time. The Atlanta Bureau of Planning labeled the area as a slum when it published a study of Atlanta housing characteristics in 1942.

Martha Battle did not live to see her home torn down. But Jack Battle held out as the city worked other plans for the land and claimed the lots of his neighbors to create the new corner of Candler Park. The Battle property was the last lot to go. In 1942, the city assumed the house and land for $16.95 of unpaid property tax.

The Rose Hill residents were displaced and the houses destroyed, a target of Atlanta’s Slum Clearance Ordinance. The land was then absorbed into the City public park, which was for “whites-only” until 1963.

#11 – 433 SAVAGE COURT

The recorded owner of 433 Savage Court was Frank Lewis, listed on a 1915 DeKalb County map and on a 1941 plat map of the area. Mr. Lewis likely bought the half-lot from Jack Battle next door. Liza Paxton was listed in 1928 and 1935 living in the household; she worked as a laundress. In 1930, Viola Kelly was a renter who worked as a laundress.

According to the 1940 U.S. Census, William Battle was the head of household, then age 37, along with his wife Annie Lee, age 34 at that time. They rented the house for $10 per month. William worked as a porter and Annie as a cook in a private home. Their combined income for 1940 is listed at $720. William completed the second grade of formal schooling and Annie the fourth grade.

Other renters at 433 in 1940 included Lawson Reid, born about 1898, and Hazel Reid, born about 1904. Lawson was listed as a laborer and yard worker, Hazel as a maid in private work with an income of $100. They could both read and write; Hazel may have completed one year of college.

A plat map from 1941 indicates the Frank Lewis house and land at 433 Savage Court was among the Rose Hill properties soon to be acquired by the City of Atlanta to enlarge the public park for ‘whites-only,’ until it was desegregated in 1963.