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Rapp Road Community Historic District

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Rapp Road Community Historic District
Rapp Road Community Historic District is located in New York
Rapp Road Community Historic District
LocationRapp Rd., Albany, New York
Area14 acres[2]
Built1930
Architectural styleBungalow/Craftsman
NRHP reference No.02001620[1]
Added to NRHPDecember 27, 2002

Rapp Road Community Historic District is a historic district in the Pine Bush area, in the western end of the city of Albany, New York, that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. It is significant as a "rare example of chain-migration community resulting from the Great Migration."[1][2]

The Reverend Louis W. Parson and his wife migrated to Albany from Mississippi in 1927.[2] He founded the First Church of God in Christ in Albany. In four trips to Mississippi, Parson encouraged friends and family to move to Albany and join the church. Many friends and family did, during the 1930s and 1940s. Eventually the majority of Shubuta, Mississippi, moved to Albany.[2]

The Rapp Road community was a response to congregation members' discomfort with the urban Albany moral values and urban living. Some moved back to Mississippi. Two 14-acre undeveloped properties were purchased by Louis W. Parson, in 1930 and 1933. The community grew by "haphazard" splitting of the property, along Rapp Road, a narrow land, including properties that spanned the road. The community thus reflects the First Great Migration of black Americans from the South to the North.[2]

Community

Parson found undeveloped land in the Pine Bush for the community to move to because he did not think life in Albany's South End was compatible with religious. The community saved money and built houses similar to those in Mississippi from which they came. They continued a similar lifestyle to that of the South in the middle of a woodsy area in the North.[3] During the World War II years, especially, building materials were hard to obtain, and thus one family found they could complete a small shotgun house but not the larger house that they had started.[2]

The residences are a mix of cottages and shotgun houses, and are clustered on Rapp Road between Pine Lane and the South Frontage Road of Washington Avenue Extension, just north of Crossgates Mall.[4] At its peak, 23 families lived on Rapp Road, and in 2001, 16 of the original families were still represented.[2] In 2008, 15 of the original 23 families remain.[3] In 2002 the community was designated by the state of New York as a "New York State Historic District" and in 2003 a National Historic District; and in 2006 the Board of Regents chartered the Rapp Road Historical Association.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Lemak, Jennifer A. (April, 2000). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Rapp Road Community Historic District". Retrieved 2009-04-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)Accompanying 18 photos, undated
  3. ^ a b Amy Holloran (2008-11-2). "Southern Roots: Lemak's new book recounts the story of Rapp Road". Albany Times Union. Retrieved 2009-04-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ a b "Rapp Road Community History Project". New York State Museum. Retrieved 2009-04-21.
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