NEWS

 

 

Creekside Corner, a thriving neighborhood of affordable homes, began with a surprise gift from Davidson College to Davidson Housing Coalition

Davidson Housing Coalition recently announced news that the affordable housing neighborhood, Creekside Corner, is expanding with the addition of several new housing units. Since its creation, Creekside Corner has added affordable housing properties slowly, in deliberate, planned phases. Nearly a generation has passed since Davidson Housing Coalition acquired the property that would become Creekside Corner on June 1, 2001.

The events that led to the creation of Creekside Corner revolve around the fascinating and challenging life of a Davidson barber, Ralph W. Johnson. Johnson’s substantial autobiography, David Played a Harp, recounts his struggles as a Black business owner who rose to prominence in Davidson, exhibiting a mix of steely business sense balanced with the outward grace and dignity required in this well-mannered Southern college town.

In early April 1968, Johnson’s efforts to operate his business while negotiating the sharp-edged necessities of Jim Crow ran headlong into vocal counter-efforts by a group of Davidson College students offended by Johnson’s long-standing practice of largely restricting his business to white customers. A boycott accompanied by student protests in front of Johnson’s shop persisted for weeks, throughout the turmoil of the King assassination and its aftermath. The protests and pressure from all fronts eventually led Johnson to desegregate his business in May 1968.

Johnson’s anguish over the existential threat to his barber shop was palpable. He recounted in David Played a Harp, “I did not originate the practice of segregation of the races. I had been forced to live under its rule for sixty years. But these young white men behaved as if I had been the founder from the beginning, and that but for me the whole evil thing would disappear from the earth.”

Tragically, Johnson’s business never fully recovered its customer base in the years following the protests and integration. Johnson closed the doors to his barber shop business on November 15, 1971. He continued to operate a grocery store in Davidson and focused on acquiring real estate on Griffith Street and Mock Circle to hold as rental properties.

Johnson began writing his autobiography in 1971 and finished it in 1973, although he did not publish it until 2000. At that time, Johnson was 96 years old and looking to sell his significant landholdings and retire to an assisted living center with his sister Erving.

Ralph Johnson’s autobiography lands on the desk of Davidson College’s president 

In 2000, about three years into his tenure as president of Davidson College, Robert Vagt read Ralph Johnson’s autobiography. Seeing the bitterness that Johnson had carried for so many years spelled out in print had a profound impact. Robert Vagt remembered Johnson’s barber shop, the picketing, and the boycott. After all, Vagt had been a junior at Davidson College in 1968 during the time of the protests.

In a Charlotte Observer article published in August 2001, reporter Peter St. Onge interviewed both Vagt and Johnson. Vagt reported that he was “dismayed” after reading Johnson’s autobiography and reached out to Johnson to talk about “the boycott and the school.” According to the article, in later meetings between the two men, “Johnson spoke of his properties and how disposing of them had become a burden.”

Ensuing business discussions between the two men led to an agreement that would be mutually beneficial: a deal to transfer Johnson’s properties to the Trustees of Davidson College, the establishment of an annuity to care for Johnson and his sister, the creation of the Ralph W. and Erving E. Johnson scholarship at Davidson College, and the eventual addition of Creekside Corner properties to the inventory of affordable housing in Davidson. Johnson characterized the deal this way: “Out of a mess has come something.”

After transferring his property, including the historic Ralph Johnson House where he and his sister lived, to the Trustees of Davidson College, Johnson and his sister moved to assisted living at The Laurels in Charlotte. Ralph Johnson died at 97 years of age on November 21, 2001. Erving remained at The Laurels and died on April 11, 2004, at age 92.

An Unexpected Phone Call

While the Trustees of Davidson College had been desirous of Johnson’s Griffith Street properties for some time, the rental properties he owned around Mock Circle presented a challenge, and an opportunity. One April morning in 2001, Margo Williams, then president of the DHC Board of Directors, received a phone call. It was Robert Vagt, asking for a meeting at the college.

Williams recounts the surprising call. “Bobby explained that the college would be receiving a gift from a long-time Davidson resident and property owner of five house properties, a contiguous vacant lot, and a cinder block building on Mock Circle, and one additional house on Sloan Street. The college was interested in conferring the property to DHC for redevelopment because of DHC’s experience in dealing with both affordable rentals and single-family development.” The catch: the donated houses needed significant work and might not be salvageable.

In a unique partnership between DHC and Davidson College, eight properties that were previously owned by Ralph Johnson were transferred to DHC on the same day that the Trustees of Davidson College acquired them. With the college’s continued financial support, DHC began planning how to renovate or redevelop the homes to provide safe, affordable, and beautiful housing in the area. The understanding and hope of both DHC and Davidson College was that the original deteriorating structures could be improved and that the tenants who occupied the donated properties would be able to remain in their houses.

However, inspections quickly discovered significant structural, electrical, and plumbing problems with many of the homes. The homes also contained asbestos and lead paint. Williams recalls, “We needed to move a family with children out of one of the rental houses immediately because it was in such dire shape. There wasn’t an available house that was ready for the family, so we temporarily moved them into hotel rooms and took care of the bills.”

In all, six structures that had been donated to DHC needed to be demolished for safety reasons. DHC initiated plans to replace those six structures with new construction. They drew on the design and construction experience they gained while building The Bungalows in 1999-2000.

DHC had employed a neighborhood workshop model in designing The Bungalows and found the process of involving neighbors and townspeople in design discussions to be beneficial to the process and to the outcome. Following this model, DHC sought broad community input into the design of Creekside Corner. They invited the residents of the homes, neighbors, and other interested citizens to participate in a design charrette, which resulted in a plan to construct seven buildings in the area with a total of 11 living units, plus an office space for DHC.

DHC then completed the Town’s approval process, including a public hearing, and meetings of the Planning Board and the Town Board of Commissioners.

In a speech given at the groundbreaking dedication of the property in late 2002, Margo Williams highlighted the trust that Davidson College had placed in DHC to restore and renovate the donated properties: “The college’s belief in our capacity to create something wonderful here gave us the courage to take on a project of this magnitude.”

The Creekside neighborhood continues to grow. In 2003, DHC completed phase one of Creekside with 10 affordable rental units and two homes. In 2004, three additional affordable duplexes at Creekside were completed. In 2005, DHC completed renovations and moved into the neighborhood office space they now occupy on Sloane Street. In 2015, DHC added two additional duplexes in the Creekside neighborhood tailored specifically for veterans.

In recent weeks, DHC has announced its latest plans for expanding the Creekside neighborhood, as well as receipt of a seed grant in support of the project from the Davidson Community Foundation.

“We’re proud that the neighborhoods we’ve built help keep Davidson’s doors open to residents of low and moderate incomes,” said Connie Wessner, DHC’s executive director. “The need remains and that’s why we keep looking for and acting on opportunities to make more homes available.”

Looking back on the initial gift from Davidson College, Wessner added, “Partnership and collaboration make our work possible. Without partners who will take risks with us, without land donations, without foundational grants that speak to this community’s long-standing interest in protecting affordability, we cannot do the work we do. Creekside is a terrific example of what can happen when all the key players in Town come together to grow Davidson’s potential. Beautiful neighborhoods, affordable options, all of us rowing together to advance our shared civic values—all three are at the heart of DHC’s mission and we are so grateful for what the College helped us start here.”