ANTIQUE AFRICAN AMERICAN FUNERAL DIRECTOR EMBALMER CERTIFICATE WINSTON-SALEM NC

Beschreibung

A very rare African American member certificate estimated to be from the 1930s or 40s behind original glass in its original frame measuring approximately 7 5/8 x 9 5/8 visible inches and 13 1/8 x 15 1/8 inches, respectively. Fitch signature appears to be over last name Robinson, possibly Adaline Robinson, where this license may have once was hung. Percy Rivera is identified as an African American mortician as early at 1919. See some research below. Thanks for looking.US Dept of Interior National Park ServiceNational Register of Historic Places ApplicationRobinson, A. Building/Howard-Robinson Building/Pyramid Barber Shop707-709 Patterson AvenueWinston-Salem, NCAreas of Significance: Commerce, Ethnic Heritage/Black, ArchitectureThe A. Robinson Building was erected in 1940-1941 as th~ Howard-Robinson Funeral Home, anAfrican-Alnerican business that continued at that location until it moved in the 1980s. The buildingalso originally housed a barber shop and continues that use today. The Robinson building and thefuneral home that built it tell the story of the ever-more-prosperous African-American communitythat developed in the Depot Street area in the late nineteenth century. The building was the thirdlocation of a commercial business established in 1897 in the Depot Street neighborhood. By 1917the twenty-year-old firm moved to a stylish, two-story brick commercial building where it remainedfor over twenty years. With his continued success, the owner, Aladine Robinson, then designed thisnew building specifically for his firm, which continues in business today one hundred years after itsfounding. The Robinson Building uses simple materials and ornamentation techniljues to create aneye-catching composition. The designer of the building, who is said to have been Mr. Robinson,clearly had a sense of design and was successful in his use of yeJIow brick on the red brick facadeto create an appearance of both vertical and horizontal symmetry, as well as height and importance.The Robinson Building is a rare survivor of the numerous African-American commercial buildingsthat once sustained Winston-Salem's black neighborhoods, and one of only three or four showingsophistication in its execution and design. It is eligible for listing in the National Register of HistoricPlaces under criterion A in the context of African-American heritage and cOlnll1ercial developlnent.This historic context is more fully discussed in the Multiple Property Documentation Form. "Historicand Architectural African-American Resources of Northeastern Winston-Salem, 1900 to 1948," inSection I, Part II, "The Realization of the African-American Community in Northeast WinstonSalem,1900-1948." The building also meets National Register criterion C as a little-changedrepresentative of the brick comn1ercial building type, and, as such, meets the RegistrationRequirements outlined in the Multiple Property Documentation Form in Section F: AssocialcdProperty Types, under Property Type II, Brick Commercial Buildings.Historical BackgroundThe A. Robinson Building was built in 1940-1941 to house the Howard-Robinson Funeral Home.Forerunners of this firm, however, had been in business in the Depot Street neighborhood since1897. According to a family Inember, the first location was in a "little building somewhere onPatterson Avenue," but the location is not known. 2Kerr Howard, always known as "K. Howard," was originally from Salisbury. After moving toWinston-Salem he taught school in the Salem Hill neighborhood and joined with a friend named Nlr.Fitch to operate the Howard and Fitch Furniture Store. 3 Their business included the manufacture Iof caskets, a common component of the furniture business at ,the turn of the Gentury. As the successof the furniture industry in nearby Thomasville, Hickory, and High Point drew business away fromWinston-Salem, many furniture businesses here, both black and white, made the natural shift tofuneral homes. 4 Howard and Fitch likewise dissolved their partn. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 63907-2402

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Titel: ANTIQUE AFRICAN AMERICAN FUNERAL DIRECTOR ...

Einband: Hardcover