On March 16, the last Phyllis Wheatley home in Chicago could face demolition if the building’s owner is not able to raise the funds to preserve the decaying landmark to Black women’s resistance during the Great Migration.
The house, a three-story building at 5128 S. Michigan Avenue, was previously owned by Phyllis Wheatley Association, named after the first published black poet in the US, Phyllis Wheatley. The group, a subsidiary of the National Association of Colored Women Clubs, operated the home as a shelter for Black women moving north to find safe haven from 1915 to 1967. Built in 1896, the 125-year-old structure would have 22 young Black women living there at a time as they established themselves in their newly adopted city. Researchers and residents alike are calling for the building’s preservation as fears mount that the residence could be torn down and replaced with expensive housing in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood.
According to Ariajo Tate, also known as JoAnn, the house is in dire need of repairs, with a collapsing roof and rear wall. In the three decades that JoAnn has owned the building, she’s raised a family there as well as running training and education resources for children through a nonprofit founded in the 1990s.
JoAnn is working with local preservation organizations to secure the $700,000-to-$1 million that would allow her to continue to use the space for her charitable organization tasked with Black economic empowerment and community building, continuing the tradition of extending the resources that were offered to white immigrants to their Black counterparts. In its prime, the association ran ads in the Chicago Defender offering to link employers with its unemployed residents.
If preserved, the building would be opened to the public and would install a display showcasing Black women’s progress since the great Migration, but the building is more than just a reminder of its past exploits; if preserved it would continue to be an indispensable part of the community’s infrastructure.
A petition to save the home, available here, already has 1,504 signatures at the time of writing. JoAnn plans to start a social media campaign in early February to stave off the possible demolition order that could come at the Demolition Court hearing scheduled for mid-March.
