Milwaukee, WI. – The Wisconsin Historical Society announces the listing of the Jones-Hill House in Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, on the National Register of Historic Places.  N­ational Register designation provides access to certain benefits, including qualification for grants and for rehabilitation income tax credits, while it does not restrict private property owners in the use of their property.

 

The Jones-Hill House is locally significant and illustrative of the African American experience in Milwaukee between the 1950s and into the 1970s. During this period in our state’s history, Milwaukee’s African American community was impacted by the effects of housing redlining, urban renewal projects, and an increase in segregation. The Jones-Hill’s house is a specific example of how Milwaukee’s African American community adapted to prevailing conditions and how a black social space evolved in racially segregated Milwaukee.

 

In 1953, the house was purchased by Willie and B. Fostoria Jones, the first confirmed African American owners. By the early 1950s, the Joneses had established or assisted in establishing a number of black-owned businesses in the heart of the African American neighborhood that had come to be known as “Bronzeville.” The home’s basement is confirmed to have functioned as a social and recreational outlet in the community from the mid-1950s to the late-1960s.

 

The National Register is the official list of historic properties in America deemed worthy of preservation and is maintained by the National Park Service in the U.S. Department of the Interior. The Wisconsin Historical Society administers the program within Wisconsin. It includes sites, buildings, structures, objects and districts that are significant in national, state or local history, architecture, archaeology, engineering or culture.

                                                                                                                        

Additional information for this house is available at www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/NationalRegister/NR2649.

 

To learn more about the State and National Register programs in Wisconsin, visit ­­­­www.wisconsinhistory.org.

 

About the Wisconsin Historical Society

The Wisconsin Historical Society, founded in 1846, ranks as one of the largest, most active and most diversified state historical societies in the nation. As both a state agency and a private membership organization, its mission is to help people connect to the past by collecting, preserving and sharing stories. The Wisconsin Historical Society serves millions of people every year through a wide range of sites, programs and services. For more information, visit wisconsinhistory.org.

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