The Rev. M. L. Latta House was located at 1001 Parker Street in the freeman's settlement of Oberlin Village (now Raleigh, North Carolina).[2] It was built as the home of Laura Bivens and Morgan London Latta, and their ten children, who lived in the house starting around 1905.[3][2] Latta was a former slave who graduated from Shaw University after the Civil War. He founded Latta University, a trade school, in 1882 to educate freedmen and orphans in Raleigh's African-American community and built his house adjacent to the campus.[3][4]
The size and style of the Latta House reveal the wealth of Latta, significant within the early 20th century African American community of Raleigh.[2] It was one of the largest houses in Oberlin at the time and was constructed in a fashional style.[2]
After Latta University closed amid a scandal around 1922, Latta and his wife moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by 1930.[5][6][4] Neighbors Chesley and Berta Haywood purchased Latta House at auction in 1933.[2] Haywood was an fireman with Norfolk and Southern Railroad.[2] The Haywoods moved into Latta House by 1935.[2] However, it was occupited by various renters in the 1940s.[2] After Chesley Haywood died, Berta Haywood lived in the house from the mid-1950s through the 1970s.[2]
Site of the former Latta House
When Berta Haywood died, the house was sold to Adryon Clay.[2] Later, the house was unoccupied but overseen by a caretaker.[7] The Latta House property became a gathering place for the surrounding African American community.[6] Over time, the Latta House was the only surviving structure on the campus of the former trade school.[4]
The Latta House Foundation was established, with plans to adapt the house as a cultural center.[8][7] On January 8, 2007, a fire destroyed the house, leaving only its brick foundation.[7][9] After the fire, the property's owner gave the land to the city of Raleigh for use as a park.[10]
Architecture
The Rev. M. L. Latta House was built about 1905.[2] It was a two-story Colonial Revial and Queen Anne style house with a Tuscan order wraparound porch.[2] Constructed of clapboards, the house had a brick foundation, a slate roof, and two corbeled chimneys.[2] The main level of the house included a central hallway, with large rooms on either side and smaller rooms in back.[2] The front rooms were originally decorated with stenciling.[2] The second floor featured five bedrooms.[2]
The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 16, 2002. It was designated a Raleigh Historic Site in 2003 but lost that status in 2007 when the house was destroyed by a fire.[11]
12345678910111213141516Sherry Joines Wyatt (November 2001). "Rev. M.L. Latta House"(PDF). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
↑Nickens, T. Edward (February 2, 2021). "The Dreams That Linger". Our State. Archived from the original on December 7, 2024. Retrieved December 7, 2024.
↑McDonald, Thomasi (January 7, 2007). "Fire Destroys Latta House". The News & Observer. Archived from the original on January 25, 2007. Retrieved March 29, 2008.
↑Locke, Mandy (March 9, 2008). "Progress Eats Into History". The News and Observer. Raleigh, North Carolina. pp.A1, A6. Retrieved January 2, 2025– via Newspapers.com.
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