Patton Avenue

Built about 1954 and occupied for over six decades by barber and community leader Albert D. Neal. “If you are a male and native Charlottean, chances are A.D. Neal gave you, or your son, and/or grandson your first haircut,” said his funeral program in 2016. “His career as a barber spanned more than 75 years to include over 50 years of owning and operating Neal’s Barber Shop.”

Mr. Neal’s community leadership started early. As a teenager at newly opened West Charlotte High, he not only was the school’s first football quarterback but also wrote the school song. As an Army sergeant during World War II he was chosen to be on the crew that loaded the first atomic bomb. In 1960 when JCSU college students conducted sit-ins at Charlotte lunch counters, A.D. Neal’s support helped rally the community behind the young activists.

Built 1954 – 1955 for Fred Davis, Sr., and wife Emma M. Davis. When he took out the permit, Davis worked cleaning railroad cars for the Southern Railway, one of Charlotte’s largest employers. He was later employed as a stevadore loading trucks at Central Motor Lines.

Mrs. Emma Davis was a registered nurse. She worked for thirty years in Charlotte, first at Good Samaritan Hospital, one of the longest-serving African American hospitals in the U.S., then at Charlotte Memorial Hospital.

Built in 1979 for Bampfield J. Stinson, “one of the first black Postal Clerks serving the city of Charlotte,” according to his obituary, and wife Dorothy Peoples Stinson, a schoolteacher.

Mr. Stinson came from one of the South’s most remarkable families. His great-grandfather was the famed Civil War hero Robert Smalls, an enslaved boat captain who commandeered a vessel in Charleston harbor and sailed it — with his family and other African Americans — through Confederate lines to safety. Mr. Stinson’s grandmother Elizabeth Smalls Bampfield served as postmaster in Beaufort, SC, a rare achievement for an African American woman. Mr. Stinson took after both ancestors, becoming a much-decorated World War II veteran, then helping integrate Charlotte’s post office.

Among the earliest post-World War II houses in McCrorey Heights, this dwelling was built in 1950-51 for James C. and Clara B. Brown. They owned the Dark Swan Smoke Shop & Confectionary in Charlotte’s Third Ward neighborhood.

Miss Blanche W. Tyson, one of the city’s longest-serving elementary school teachers, took out the permit to build this house in 1965. She had begun teaching in the early years of the 1900s at Myers Street School, the city’s first black elementary school. Later she operated her own private Tyson Kindergarten — in an era when kindergarten classes were unheard of in public schools in the South. She founded the The Bluebird Club, a social organization for her fellow teachers at the Myers Street School. Believed to be Charlotte’s first black female social club, it remains active in the 2010s.

Built 1950 – 51 for William L. Smith and his wife Velma. When the family moved into their new home on Patton Avenue, Mr. Smith was Assistant District Manager for Durham-based North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance, one of the largest African American economic forces in the South. The couple later ran their own W.L. Smith Insurance Agency at 1230 Beatties Ford Road.

Built 1954 for Edgar C. Goodwin, founder and longtime leader of Charlotte’s McCrorey YMCA, and wife Florence Cannon Goodwin, a public health nurse. The McCrorey YMCA was one of Charlotte’s largest and most important African American institutions. Mr. Goodwin raised money for its handsome 1951 building on Caldwell Street in the Brooklyn neighborhood, named in honor of JCSU President (and McCrorey Heights developer) Rev. H.L. McCrorey. Goodwin rounded out his career raising funds to build its suburban replacement on Beatties Ford Road, opened in 1972. After retiring, Goodwin worked for a decade as an employment counselor for the City of Charlotte, helping African Americans get hired in jobs that were opening up as a result of Civil Rights advances.

Ruth E. Blake, a teacher at Charlotte’s Myers Street School, took out a permit to construct this residence for herself in 1952. The address first appeared in the city directory in 1955, listing Blake as living alone in the house. Later directories in the 1960s showed her married to James P. Dixon, a sign painter.