African-American communities and businesses in Winchester

Communities

In 1860, before the Civil War, Winchester’s 48 free Blacks lived in 15 house­holds wide­ly scat­tered through­out the down­town area.  Following Emancipation, new­ly freed fam­i­lies were pressed to find employ­ment and hous­ing.  The major­i­ty worked in the ser­vice indus­try in town and farm labor in the coun­ty, and began to find hous­ing in seg­re­gat­ed communities. 

The first African-American neigh­bor­hood devel­oped in the North Highland-East Broadway-Church Alley area.  Here too they estab­lished their first church­es, Allen Chapel CME (1866) on Broadway, fol­lowed by First Baptist Church on Highland (1867).  By 1890 North Highland was home to res­i­dences, busi­ness­es and a “Colored Lodge.”

A num­ber of devel­op­ers acquired land specif­i­cal­ly to sell lots to Blacks for hous­ing.  Wiley T. Poynter led the way with the pur­chase of 65 acres, which he laid out in 53 lots in 1867.  Poynterville enclosed the area bound­ed by Elm, Washington, First, and Evans streets.  Later that year, Lewis Haggard and Nelson Ramsey, “men of col­or,” devel­oped their sub­di­vi­sion, Haggardville, on an eight-acre tract on the east side of First Street, adjoin­ing Poynterville.  In 1868 the heirs of John Bruner estab­lished Brunerville on the west side of Elm Street.  It was framed by Walnut, Upper and Washington.  The names Haggardville and Brunerville per­sist­ed until the 20^th cen­tu­ry, when the areas were assumed to be part of Poynterville.  In 1868 the Kohlhass fam­i­ly devel­oped an African-American sub­di­vi­sion, Kohlhassville, on Lincoln Street, and a short stretch of East Hickman.

These neigh­bor­hoods were blight­ed by pover­ty.  In 1881 the Winchester church­es held a mass meet­ing “for the pur­pose of sug­gest­ing the best plan for rais­ing funds and pro­vi­sions for the suf­fer­ing poor of Brunerville, Poynterville, Haggardville and Kohlhassville.”  One com­mit­tee was appoint­ed to assist those seek­ing jobs and hous­ing, and anoth­er to dis­trib­ute pro­vi­sions and fuel.

The com­mu­ni­ties were also sub­ject to dis­crim­i­na­to­ry prac­tices.  A Sun edi­to­r­i­al in 1919, refer­ring to the Black com­mu­ni­ties, point­ed out that they pay the same tax­es as the whites and “yet have not the same advan­tages and pro­tec­tions.”  As an exam­ple, “their streets are almost prim­i­tive and in bad weath­er it is almost impos­si­ble to get in and out.”  Their water sup­ply was insuf­fi­cient for fire pro­tec­tion and thus insur­ance could not be obtained.

Beginning in the 1930s these low-income, minor­i­ty neigh­bor­hoods were inten­tion­al­ly cut off from lend­ing and invest­ment through a wide­ly prac­ticed sys­tem known as redlin­ing.  Today many of those same neigh­bor­hoods suf­fer from reduced wealth and greater poverty.

Poynterville, the largest sub­di­vi­sion by area, has always had the largest pop­u­la­tion, and its area has expand­ed to the north and west.  The ear­ly 1900s saw a num­ber of new seg­re­gat­ed African-American neigh­bor­hoods devel­op:  West Broadway, West Washington, North Maple, North Burns, Oliver, East Hickman from Buckner to the rail­road, North Wall Alley, Bell Alley (now Rev. Baker Way), and Kerr Alley (now Hopkins Lane).  Most of these neigh­bor­hoods con­tin­ued to grow and become more pros­per­ous through­out the 20^th century.

Businesses

Black busi­ness­es were iden­ti­fied by search­ing through the col­lec­tion of city direc­to­ries at the library.  The main com­mer­cial area was always along West Washington Street and, to a less­er extent, North Maple and West Broadway.  Washington Street went through a num­ber of ups and downs.  In 1908 there were eight busi­ness­es:  a coal yard, liv­ery sta­ble, restau­rant, bar­ber­shop, three gro­ceries, and a saloon met much of the community’s needs. 

In 1914 there were 20 busi­ness­es on Washington, most­ly of the same types with addi­tion of two board­ing hous­es and an under­tak­er.  That num­ber plum­met­ed to five in 1940.  One pos­si­ble expla­na­tion may be that dur­ing the pre-war peri­od, the coun­try was still in the throes of the Great Depression, which had its most seri­ous impact on the most impov­er­ished cit­i­zens.  Another fac­tor may be that Winchester’s Black pop­u­la­tion decreased by near­ly 50 per­cent in the three decades from 1910 to 1940.

By the 1950s the num­ber of Washington Street busi­ness­es had increased to the low teens.  Those num­bers were main­tained until the late 1980s, when strict code enforce­ment and urban renew­al took their toll.  The last to go were Ann and P. J. Washington’s pool­room (1994) and the American Legion build­ing at the cor­ner of Washington and Maple (2016).  Markers and memo­ri­als in Heritage Park now cel­e­brate this once thriv­ing com­mer­cial area that has disappeared.