Private residence
Hancock House is a mansion in Bluefield, West Virginia that was built in 1907 on a site for Ora and Charles Benjamin Hancock and their ten children. [2] Hancock was self-educated man who became a millionaire through the Bluefield Hardware Co., a wholesaler for mining and hardware supplies. [2] [3] Later, he was an investor in the Kingsport Hardware in Kingsport, Tennessee. [3] He also a stockbroker for 25 years, dabbled in the coal industry, and established the Bluefield Furniture Co. [2] [3] Bluefield Furniture Co. became on 25 acres (10 ha) of the largest wholesale furniture business in the Southern United States. [2] In 2015, both Bluefield Furniture Co. and Bluefield Hardware Co. were still in business. [2]
After Charles Hancock died in the early 1940s, Ora sold the house to the Del Ramage. [2] Once fashionable and historically white, by the early 1960s, Hancock House's neighborhood transitioned into a mostly Black neighborhood as coal mining and the railroad grew in the area. [2] The Ramage family sold the house to Alpha Phi Alpha of Bluefield State College, an historical black university, in 1962. [2]
Fraternity house
Alpha Phi Alpha is a historically Black college and community-based social fraternity, founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, on December 4, 1906. [3] [4] It established its Alpha Zeta Lambda chapter for individuals associated with Bluefield Colored Institute and Browns Creek District High School on January 28, 1927. [5] A second chapter, Beta Theta, was chartered for undergraduate students at Bluefield Colored Institute on March 5,1932, becoming the first national fraternity on what would become Bluefield State University. [5] [6] At the time Alpha Zeta Lambda became a graduate chapter, which included Henry Lake Dickason and Duke Ellington, amongst its members. [5]
Alpha Zeta Lambda chapter organized a Housing Foundation and purchased the Hancock House from the Ramage family in 1962. [5] [2] Thus, it became the largest house owned by African Americans in the region. [2]
Alpha Zeta Lambda chapter dedicated its renamed Alpha House on September 29, 1963 with a gala that was attended by hundreds of from the area and across the United States. [3] The fraternity turned Alpha House into a fraternity chapter house and social and cultural center during the era of segregation. [3] [2] The main level was used for community meetings, parties, and balls, while its upstairs provided housing for undergraduate fraternity members. [2] Duke Ellington performed in Alpha House on December 12, 1966. [3]
The fraternity continued to occupy Alpha House until around 2000, when the property was sold due to declining membership, significant disrepair, and high insurance costs. [5] The charter of Alpha Zeta Lambda chapter was moved to Morgantown, West Virginia on September 21, 2016, ending its more than eighty years in Bluefield. [5] Beta Theta chapter is also inactive. [4]
Alpha House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 17, 1990, as the Hancock House. [7] Its address is 300 Sussex Street in Bluefield, West Virginia. [2]
