2009 Oaklawn Avenue

2009 Oaklawn Avenue first appeared in city directories in 1939 occupied by Frederick L. Wiley and wife Grace E. Wiley. The couple were life-long educators in Charlotte’s public schools, he at Second Ward High and she at Isabella Wyche Elementary. They evidently remained in the house all their lives. Mr. Wiley’s death notice in 1974 at age 79 listed him at this address. City directories continued to show Mrs. Wiley living alone in the early 1980s.

Mr. Wylie’s civic leadership included membership on the three-person committee that raised half the funds to construct West Charlotte’s athletic stadium in 1948, spurring the School Board to provide a matching amount. Chair of the Improvement Club for Negro Schools was W. Howard Moreland, a school principal who became a McCrorey Heights neighbor when he built a home at 1722 Madison Avenue in 1963.

Mrs. Wylie helped launch the Charlotte Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, an active African American sorority. In 1942 she was one of the first five initiates tapped by the original seven charter members. Interestingly, nearly all of the club members were (or would soon be) McCrorey Heights neighbors: charter members Julia Wyche Boulding, Roberta Douglas Thompkins, Edna Stinson Robinson; initiates Gladys Green, Grace Wylie, Kellene Wyche and Dorothy Stinson. The group funded scholarships, aided Good Samaritan Hospital and helped the NAACP, among other work. It remains active at this writing in 2017.