Unity Hall | |
Location | 3140 S. Indiana Ave., Chicago, Illinois |
---|---|
Coordinates | 41°50′16″N87°37′21″W / 41.83778°N 87.62250°W Coordinates: 41°50′16″N87°37′21″W / 41.83778°N 87.62250°W |
Area | less than one acre |
Built | 1887 |
Architect | Dixon, L.B. |
MPS | Black Metropolis TR |
NRHP reference No. | 86001092 [1] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | April 30, 1986 |
Designated CHICL | September 9, 1998 |
Unity Hall is a historic building located at 3140 S. Indiana Ave. in the Douglas community area of Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1887, the building originally served as a Jewish social club called the Lakeside Club. The red brick building, designed by local architect L.B. Dixon, features terra cotta decorations and sheet metal edging. In 1917, Chicago alderman Oscar Stanton De Priest founded the Peoples Movement Club and made Unity Hall its headquarters. De Priest was the first African-American to serve on the Chicago City Council, and he established the Peoples Movement Club to organize the black community politically. The Peoples Movement Club became "one of the best organized political groups" in Chicago's Black Metropolis neighborhood, and De Priest became the first African-American U.S. Representative from the northern states in 1928. [2]
After the Peoples Movement Club left the building, William L. Dawson used it as his political headquarters. [2] From the 1950s onward, the building had mainly been used by churches. [3] It is currently vacant and was placed on Preservation Chicago's list of the most endangered historic properties in the city. [4]
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 30, 1986. [1] It was named a Chicago Landmark on September 9, 1998. [3]
Germantown is an area in Northwest Philadelphia. Founded by German, Quaker, and Mennonite families in 1683 as an independent borough, it was absorbed into Philadelphia in 1854. The area, which is about six miles northwest from the city center, now consists of two neighborhoods: 'Germantown' and 'East Germantown'.
The Chicago Water Tower is a contributing property and landmark in the Old Chicago Water Tower District in Chicago, Illinois, United States, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Oscar Stanton De Priest was an American politician and civil rights advocate from Chicago. A member of the Illinois Republican Party, he was the first African American to be elected to Congress in the 20th century. During his three terms, he was the only African American serving in Congress. He served as a U.S. Representative from Illinois' 1st congressional district from 1929 to 1935. De Priest was also the first African-American U.S. Representative from outside the southern states and the first since the exit of North Carolina representative George Henry White from Congress in 1901.
Grand Boulevard, located on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, is one of the well-defined Chicago Community Areas. The boulevard from which the community area takes its name now bears the name of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. The area is bounded by 39th to the north, 51st Street to the south, Cottage Grove Avenue to the east, and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad tracks to the west.
The African Meeting House, also known variously as First African Baptist Church, First Independent Baptist Church and the Belknap Street Church, was built in 1806 and is now the oldest black church edifice still standing in the United States. It is located in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, adjacent to the African-American Abiel Smith School. It is a National Historic Landmark.
The Alpha Suffrage Club was the first and most important black female suffrage club in Chicago and one of the most important in Illinois. It was founded on January 30, 1913 by Ida B. Wells with the help of her white colleagues Belle Squire and Virginia Brooks. The Club aimed to give a voice to African American women who had been excluded from national suffrage organizations such as the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Its stated purpose was to inform black women of their civic responsibility and to organize them to help elect candidates who would best serve the interests of African Americans in Chicago.
The DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago is dedicated to the study and conservation of African-American history, culture, and art. It was founded in 1961 by Margaret Taylor-Burroughs, her husband Charles Burroughs, Gerard Lew, Eugene Feldman, Bernard Goss, Marian M. Hadley, and others. They established the museum to celebrate black culture, at the time overlooked by most museums and academic establishments. The museum has an affiliation with the Smithsonian Institution.
The Jewell Building is a city landmark in North Omaha, Nebraska. Built in 1923, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Located at 2221 North 24th Street, the building was home to the Dreamland Ballroom for more than 40 years, and featured performances by many touring jazz and blues legends, including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Lionel Hampton.
Black Metropolis–Bronzeville District is a historic African American district in the Bronzeville neighborhood of South Side, Chicago, Illinois.
The Oscar Stanton De Priest House is a historic apartment building at 4536-4538 South Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Chicago, Illinois,. It was built in 1920, and one of its units was from 1929 to 1951 home to Oscar Stanton De Priest (1871-1951), the first African-American to be elected to the United States Congress from a northern state. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark on May 15, 1975. It is not open to the public.
Stanton Hall, also known as Belfast, is an Antebellum Classical Revival mansion at 401 High Street in Natchez, Mississippi. Built in the 1850s, it is one of the most opulent antebellum mansions to survive in the southeastern United States. It is now operated as a historic house museum by the Pilgrimage Garden Club. The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974 and a Mississippi Landmark in 1995.
Dorchester Academy was a school for African-Americans located just outside Midway, Georgia. Operating from 1869 to 1940, its campus, of which only the 1935 Dorchester Academy Boys' Dormitory survives, was the primary site of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Citizen Education Program. This program, ran here from 1961 to 1970, worked toward attaining equality for blacks in the American South by teaching them their rights and helping them acquire the knowledge necessary to become registered voters by passing the required test. The dormitory building was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 2006 for its later role in the American civil rights movement, and for its association with activist Septima Poinsette Clark, who oversaw the education program. The campus, which includes several later buildings, is now a museum and research center.
The Dunbar Hotel, originally known as the Hotel Somerville, was the focal point of the Central Avenue African-American community in Los Angeles, California, during the 1930s and 1940s. Built in 1928, it was known for its first year as the Hotel Somerville. Upon its opening, it hosted the first national convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to be held in the western United States. In 1930, the hotel was renamed the Dunbar, and it became the most prestigious hotel in LA's African-American community. In the early 1930s, a nightclub opened at the Dunbar, and it became the center of the Central Avenue jazz scene in the 1930s and 1940s. The Dunbar hosted Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Lena Horne, and many other jazz legends. Other noteworthy people who stayed at the Dunbar include W. E. B. Du Bois, Joe Louis, Ray Charles, and Thurgood Marshall. Former heavyweight champion Jack Johnson also ran a nightclub at the Dunbar in the 1930s.
The Germania Club Building, located at 108 W. Germania Place in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois, is the historic headquarters of the Germania Club, the oldest German-American organization in the city. The Germania Club was founded in 1865 as the Germania Männerchor, which formed to sing at Abraham Lincoln's funeral. The club built the Germania Club Building in 1889; it was designed by August Fiedler in an eclectic style featuring neoclassical and German Renaissance influences. The five-story building has a two-story limestone base with a portico and arched doorway on the south end. The upper stories feature arched windows capped by pediments and a pilaster supporting the cornice atop the building. The building includes a grand ballroom, banquet room, and restaurant and bar. The club played an important role in Chicago's German-American community, once the largest ethnic community in Chicago.
Jessie De Priest was a former music teacher married to Oscar Stanton De Priest, the first African American to be elected to the United States Congress in the 20th century. Jessie De Priest was the first African American wife of a U.S. Congressman who served in the 1900s. She is best known for her involvement in an incident known as the "Tea at the White House". First Lady Lou Henry Hoover invited De Priest to the traditional tea along with several other Congressmen's wives, resulting in racially-motivated backlash from media outlets and the public.