1826 Madison Avenue

Built 1951 – 52 by brickmason Tony S. Jordan. He and wife Francennie, a teacher, resided here for over three decades.

Bricklaying was a trade dominated by African Americans in the South into the mid-twentieth century. That dated back to slavery times, when African Americans not only made much of the South’s brick, but also handled nearly every aspect of building construction. Tony Jordan was one of half a dozen brickmasons whose solidly middle-class economic achievements gave them the money to build in McCrorey Heights, Charlotte’s most prestigious address for African Americans in the 1950s.

He may be the same “Anthony S. ‘Tony’ Jordan” whose death was noted in 2010 at age 101 by Charlotte’s on-line African American newspaper Q-City Metro.

It is likely that Jordan’s father was also in the masonry trades and shared his son’s name. A brief notice in the Charlotte Observer on July 22, 1900, reported:”Tony Jordan, one of the best-known colored plasterers in the city, died yesterday at his home in Biddleville. Tony was not able to speak above a whisper for many years and suffered greatly with asthma. He was polite, faithful in his work, and will be missed by his many white friends.” In 1873 Tony Jordan and two others chartered an organization called “The Society of Minute Men” which took responsibility for maintaining the cemetery in the Biddleville neighborhood.