Orsel and Minnie McGhee House
Orsel and Minnie McGhee House | |
Orsel and Minnie McGhee House, 2022 | |
Interactive map | |
Location | 4626 Seebaldt St. Detroit, Michigan |
---|---|
Coordinates | 42°21′19″N 83°7′10″W / 42.35528°N 83.11944°W / 42.35528; -83.11944 |
Built | 1912 |
MPS | The Civil Rights Movement and the African American Experience in 20th Century Detroit MPS |
NRHP reference No. | 100008009[1] |
Added to NRHP | August 16, 2022 |
The Orsel and Minnie McGhee House is a single family home located at 4626 Seebaldt Street in Detroit. The house played a role in the landmark Shelley v. Kraemer Supreme Court decision that determined racially restrictive covenants to be unenforceable. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2022.[2]
History
The neighborhood surrounding the Orsel and Minnie McGhee House was first built up in the early 1910s, with most of the houses built between 1912 and 1920, The McGhee House itself was constructed in 1912. The property went through multiple hands before being occupied by John C. and Meda Furgeson. In 1934, the Furgesons signed a racially restrictive covenant with other White residents of the neighborhood, which only allowed other Whites to purchase property in the neighborhood. They later sold the house to Walter Joachim. In 1944, Joachim was moving to California, and wanted to sell quickly. Orsel and Minnie McGhee, a Black couple, offered to purchase the house, and the transaction was completed in November 1944.[3]
Orsel McGhee was born in 1901 in Eutaw, Alabama. Orsel moved to Detroit in the 1920s and married Doree Diffay in 1925. The couple had two children, but Doree died in 1937. Orsel worked at the National Bank of Detroit before becoming a custodian at the Detroit Free Press. He eventually became superintendent of the maintenance crew and worked there until his retirement in 1963. Minnie Leatherman Simms was born in 1903 and attended the Tuskegee Normal School. She moved to Detroit in 1938 and worked as a postal clerk. She met and married Orsel McGhee later that year. After they married, the McGhees began to save for a house. They first rented in an area just south of Tireman Avenue only a few blocks from this property. In 1944 they had saved enough to begin looking for a home, and found the listing for this house for sale by Walter Joachim. They purchased the house in November 1944 and moved in by the end of the year.[3]
However, only a few weeks later, in early 1945, a group of White neighbors confronted the McGhees, including their next-door neighbors Benjamin and Anna Sipes. The neighbors demanded the McGhees leave, referencing the racial covenant. The McGhees refused, and the neighbors filed suit. The case, Sipes v. McGhee, was brought before the Wayne County Circuit Court in May 1945. The NAACP helped defend the McGhees, but Circuit Court Judge Guy A. Miller rules against them. The case was appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court, and started attracting national attention, including amicus curiae briefs were filed in support by the NAACP, the United Auto Workers, the American Jewish Congress, and several other legal advocacy groups. Nonetheless, in January 1947, the Michigan Supreme Court unanimously found against the McGhees.[3]
At the same time, similar cases in other states were winding their way through the justice system. The NAACP consolidated the McGhees' case with Shelley v. Kraemer and appealed the two to the Supreme Court of the United States. The case was argued in January 1948, and later that year the Court unanimously ruled in favor of the McGhees and other Black homeowners, holding that the enforcement of a racially based restrictive covenant in a state court would violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[3]
After the Supreme Court ruling, some White neighbors still resisted integration, but the Sipes - the next-door neighbors who had lent their name to the original suit - regretted their participation. In fact, the Sipes and McGhees grew to become good friends, and as more Black families moved into the neighborhood, the Sipes were the last White family to remain on the block, moving only in 1974 after Benjamin's death. In 1968 the McGhees, wishing to downsize, move into a smaller house down the block and sold the house at 4626 Seebaldt to Eddie and Gladys Mitchell. In 1980 the property was purchased by John D. Lewis, and in 2011 by Velma and Tony Rucker.[3]
Description
The Orsel and Minnie McGhee House is a two-story, rectangular, foursquare house with a hopped roof. The house is two bays wide with a full length, half-hipped roof front porch and an off-center front doorway. A bay window projects under the porch roof, creating an asymmetry on the first floor. On the second floor, a pair of windows are centered on the facade in a symmetrical pattern. The roof is shingled, with a centered hipped-roof dormer. Decorative rafter ends under the eaves demonstrate a Craftsman influence. The exterior has been altered, most notably by the addition of red brick-patterned asphalt siding applied over the original wood clapboard siding.[3]
References
- ^ "Weekly List 2022 08 19". National Park Service. August 19, 2022. Retrieved September 1, 2022.
- ^ Ruble, Kayla. "Detroit home involved in legal battle against discriminatory housing practices named national historical site". The Detroit News. Retrieved 2022-09-01.
- ^ a b c d e f Michael F. Webb; Melanie A. Markowicz; Timothy Boscarino (May 27, 2022), National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Orsel and Minnie McGhee House
- v
- t
- e
- Annapolis Park Historic District
- Arden Park–East Boston Historic District
- Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church
- Belle Isle Park
- Beverly Road Historic District
- Boston–Edison Historic District
- Broadway Avenue Historic District
- Brush Park Historic District
- Capitol Park Historic District
- Cass–Davenport Historic District
- Cass Park Historic District
- Cherry Hill Historic District
- Church of the Transfiguration Historic District
- Corktown Historic District
- Cultural Center Historic District
- Detroit Financial District
- Eastern Market Historic District
- East Ferry Avenue Historic District
- East Grand Boulevard Historic District
- East River Road Historic District
- Eastside Historic Cemetery District
- Fort Wayne
- Grand Circus Park Historic District
- Greektown Historic District
- Grosse Pointe Academy
- Grosse Pointe South High School
- Helen Newberry Nurses Home
- Highland Heights–Stevens' Subdivision Historic District
- Indian Village Historic District
- Jefferson–Chalmers Historic Business District
- Jefferson Intermediate School
- John and Edna Truesdell Fischer Farmstead
- Jos. Campau Historic District
- Louis G. Redstone Residential Historic District
- Lower Woodward Avenue Historic District
- Medbury's–Grove Lawn Subdivisions Historic District
- Midtown Woodward Historic District
- Michigan Avenue Historic Commercial District
- Monroe Avenue Commercial Buildings
- New Amsterdam Historic District
- New Center Commercial Historic District
- Northville Historic District
- Norwayne Historic District
- Palmer Park Apartment Building Historic District
- Palmer Park Boulevard Apartments District
- Palmer Woods Historic District
- Park Avenue Historic District
- Piquette Avenue Industrial Historic District
- Randolph Street Commercial Buildings Historic District
- Rosedale Gardens Historic District
- Rosedale Park Historic District
- St. Charles Borromeo Roman Catholic Parish Complex
- St. Florian Church
- Springwells Park Historic District
- Sugar Hill Historic District
- Virginia Park Historic District
- Warren–Prentis Historic District
- Washington Boulevard Historic District
- Wayne State University Buildings
- West Canfield Historic District
- West Vernor–Junction Historic District
- West Vernor–Lawndale Historic District
- West Vernor–Springwells Historic District
- West Village Historic District
- Willis–Selden Historic District
- Woodbridge Historic District
- Woodward East Historic District
- Albert Kahn House
- Alden Park Towers
- Alexander Chapoton House
- Alexander Chene House
- Alger Theater
- Alpha House
- Amity Lodge No. 335 Temple — Spiritual Israel Church and Its Army Temple
- Antietam Street–Grand Trunk Railroad Bridge
- Architects Building
- Arthur M. Parker House
- Bagley Memorial Fountain
- Barlum Tower
- Belcrest Apartments
- Benjamin and Mary Ann Bradford House
- Bernard Ginsburg House
- Birwood Wall
- Carl E. and Alice Candler Schmidt House
- Carlton D. Wall House
- Cary Building
- Cass Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church
- Cass Motor Sales
- Cathedral Church of St. Paul Complex
- Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament
- Central United Methodist Church
- Central Woodward Christian Church
- Chapel of St. Theresa–the Little Flower
- Chatsworth Apartments
- Century Building and Little Theatre
- Charles G. Curtiss Sr. House
- Charles J. and Ingrid V. (Frendberg) Koebel House
- Charles Lang Freer House
- Charles Trombly House
- Charles Trowbridge House
- Checker Cab Taxi Garage and Office Building
- Chestnut Street–Grand Trunk Railroad Bridge
- Christ Church Chapel
- Christ Church, Detroit
- Col. Frank J. Hecker House
- Commandant's Quarters
- Coronado Apartments
- Croul–Palms House
- Crescent Brass and Pin Company Building
- David and Elizabeth Bell Boldman House
- David Whitney House
- Dearborn City Hall Complex
- Dearborn Inn and Colonial Homes
- Defer Elementary School
- Detroit Club
- Detroit–Columbia Central Office Building
- Detroit Cornice and Slate Company Building
- Detroit Edison Company Willis Avenue Station
- Detroit–Leland Hotel
- Detroit Masonic Temple
- Detroit Naval Armory
- Detroit News Complex
- Detroit Savings Bank Southwest Branch
- Detroit Yacht Club
- Dry Dock Engine Works–Detroit Dry Dock Company Complex
- Duane Doty School
- Dunbar Hospital
- East River Road–North Hickory Canal Bridge
- Eddystone Hotel
- Edmund Atkinson School
- Edwin Denby High School
- Edwin S. George Building
- Edson, Moore and Company Building
- Eighth Precinct Police Station
- Elisha Taylor House
- El Tovar Apartments
- Elwood Bar
- Elizabeth Cleveland Intermediate School
- Engine House No. 11
- Engine House No. 18
- Ephraim and Emma Woodworth Truesdell House
- Farwell Building
- Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Detroit Branch Building
- Ferry Street–Thorofare Canal Bridge
- Fisher and New Center Buildings
- First Baptist Church of Detroit
- First Congregational Church
- First Federal Building
- First Presbyterian Church
- First Unitarian Church of Detroit
- First United Methodist Church
- Ford–Bacon House
- Ford Valve Plant
- Fort Street Presbyterian Church
- Fort Shelby Hotel
- Fort Street–Pleasant Street and Norfolk & Western Railroad Viaduct
- Francis Palms Building & State Theater
- Franklin H. Walker House
- Frederick K. Stearns House
- Frederick Stearns Building
- Frederic M. Sibley Lumber Company Office Building
- Garden Bowl
- Garden Court Apartments
- General Motors Research Laboratory
- George and Mary Pine Smith House
- George P. MacNichol House
- George W. Loomer House
- Gethsemane Evangelical Lutheran Church
- Gibraltar Road–Waterway Canal Bridge
- Globe Tobacco Building
- Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church
- Grand Army of the Republic Building
- Grande Ballroom
- Graybar Electric Company Building
- Great Lakes Manor
- Greenfield Union School
- Greenmead Farms
- Griswold Building
- Grosse Pointe Memorial Church
- Grosse Pointe Central Library
- Grosse Pointe War Memorial
- Grosse Pointe Yacht Club
- Hamtramck Stadium
- Harmonie Centre (formerly the Breitmeyer–Tobin Building)
- Henry Ford Hospital
- Henry Ford Square House
- Henry W. Baker House
- Herman Strasburg House
- Hibbard Apartment Building
- Highland Park General Hospital
- Highland Park Presbyterian Church
- Hook and Ladder House No. 5–Detroit Fire Department Repair Shop
- Hotel Stevenson
- Hudson–Evans House
- Hunter House
- Hurlbut Memorial Gate
- Hull's Trace North Huron River Corduroy Segment
- James A. Garfield School
- Jefferson Avenue–Huron River and Harbin Drive–Silver Creek Canal Bridges
- Jefferson Hall
- Jerome H. Remick and Company Building
- John and Eliza Barr Patterson House
- John and Emma Lacey Eberts House
- John Harvey House
- John N. Bagley House
- John T. Woodhouse House
- Joseph Campau House
- Kingston Arms Apartments
- Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments
- Lawyers Building
- L. B. King and Company Building
- League of Catholic Women Building
- Lee Plaza Hotel
- Lewis Cass Technical High School
- Lilley Road–Lower Rouge River Bridge
- Lincoln Park Post Office
- Maccabees Building
- Majestic Theater
- Manchester Apartments
- Mariners' Church
- Marwood Apartments
- Marx House
- McKinley Elementary School
- Mellus Newspapers Building
- Merchants Building
- Metropolitan United Methodist Church
- Michigan Bell and Western Electric Warehouse
- Michigan Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument
- Michigan State Fair Riding Coliseum, Dairy Cattle Building, and Agricultural Building
- Moross House
- Mulford T. Hunter House
- Nacirema Club
- Nellie Leland School
- New Bethel Baptist Church
- North Woodward Congregational Church
- Orchestra Hall
- Orrin and Roxanne Fairman Kinyon House
- Orson Everitt House
- Ossian H. Sweet House
- Park Avenue House
- Parke-Davis and Company Pharmaceutical Company Plant
- Parke Lane Road–Thorofare Canal Bridge
- Pasadena Apartments
- Paul Harvey Deming House
- Penn Central Station
- Pere Gabriel Richard Elementary School
- Perry McAdow House
- Philetus W. Norris House
- Phillip and Maria Hasselbach Dingledey House
- Pilgrim and Puritan Apartment Complex
- Ponchartrain Apartments
- Pontchartrain Club/Town House Apartments
- Prentis Building and DeRoy Auditorium Complex
- Professional Plaza Tower
- Redford Theatre Building
- Redford Township District No. 5 School
- River Terrace Apartments
- Robert M. and Matilda (Kitch) Grindley House
- Rosa L. (McCauley) and Raymond Parks Flat
- Sacred Heart Major Seminary
- Sacred Heart Church
- St. Albertus Roman Catholic Church
- Saint Andrew's Memorial Episcopal Church
- Ste. Anne Roman Catholic Church Complex
- St. Bonaventure Monastery
- St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church
- St. Catherine of Siena Roman Catholic Church
- St. James Episcopal Church
- St. John's Episcopal Church
- St. John's–St. Luke's Evangelical Church
- St. Josaphat's Roman Catholic Church
- St. Joseph's Episcopal Church (1883)
- St. Joseph's Episcopal Church (1926)
- St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church
- Saint Paul Catholic Church Complex
- Saint Paul Manor Apartments
- Saints Peter and Paul Academy
- Saints Peter and Paul Church
- Saint Rita Apartments
- St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Roman Catholic Church
- St. Theresa of Avila Roman Catholic Church
- St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church
- Samuel L. Smith House
- Santa Fe Apartments
- Scarab Club
- Second Baptist Church of Detroit
- Sheldon Inn
- Shrine of the Black Madonna of the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church
- Sibley House
- Sidney D. Miller Junior High and High School
- Somerset Apartments
- South Pointe Drive–Frenchman's Creek Bridge
- S. S. Kresge World Headquarters
- Starkweather School
- State Savings Bank
- Stuber–Stone Building
- Sweetest Heart Of Mary Roman Catholic Church
- Temple Baptist Church – King Solomon Baptist Church
- Temple Beth-El (Bonstelle Theatre)
- Temple Beth-El (Bethel Community Transformation Center)
- The Clay School
- The Harmonie Club
- The Kean
- The Palms
- The Players
- The Wardell
- Third Precinct Police Station
- Thomas and Isabella Moore Clyde House
- Thomas and Maria Blackman Bartlett House
- Thomas A. Parker House
- Thomas M. Cooley High School
- Thomas S. Sprague House
- Thompson Home
- Tiger Stadium
- Tivadar and Dorothy Balogh House
- Trinity Episcopal Church
- Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church Complex
- Trinity United Methodist Church
- Tushiyah United Hebrew School – Scott Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church
- US 12 Bridges
- U.S. Post Office, Court House, and Custom House
- United States Immigration Station
- United States Postal Service Roosevelt Park Station
- Vanity Ballroom Building
- Verona Apartments
- Vinton Building
- Waltz Road–Huron River Bridge
- Warren Motor Car Company Building
- Wayne County Building
- Weil and Company – Gabriel Richard Building
- West Jefferson Avenue–Rouge River Bridge
- West Side Dom Polski
- WGPR-TV Studio
- Whittier Hotel
- William and Margot Kessler House
- William B. and Mary Chase Stratton House
- William C. Boydell House
- William H. Wells House
- William Hawkins Ferry House
- Wilson Barn
- Wilson Theatre
- WJBK-TV Studios Building
- Women's City Club
- Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church
- Wyandotte Odd Fellows Temple
- Detroit Industry Murals
- Edsel and Eleanor Ford House (Gaukler Pointe)
- Fair Lane
- Fisher Building
- Ford Piquette Avenue Plant
- Ford River Rouge Complex
- Fox Theatre Building
- Highland Park Ford Plant
- General Motors Building
- Guardian Building
- Mies van der Rohe Residential District, Lafayette Park
- McGregor Memorial Conference Center
- Parke-Davis Research Laboratory
- Pewabic Pottery
- The Henry Ford
- Chateau Frontenac Apartments
- Dodge Mansion
- Grand Riviera Theater
- Harper Hospital
- Lincoln Motor Company Plant
- Columbia (steamboat)
- Ste. Claire (steamboat)
- Woodward Avenue Baptist Church