The Graves-Fields House

The Graves-Fields House. . Originally located at 802 Oberlin Road on the other side of Oberlin Baptist Church; relocated to this site in 2019 by Preservation North Carolina to save it from demolition. , Willis M. and Eleanor Hinton Graves, both born into slavery, built this impressive Queen Anne home around 1885 and named it “Oakcrest.” Its exuberant facade belies its modest size. , Born in Mississippi, Willis was a brick mason, justice of the peace, active Methodist, and twice candidate for the NC House of Representatives. He served for many years as president of Raleigh's Emancipation Day celebration, a major holiday for Black citizens throughout the South. Eleanor was born in Wake County and grew up a few blocks away,She was a teacher in Sunday School, where children learned to read and write., The Graes' four sons and two daughters all attended high school at St. Augustine's and college at Shaw University. Daughter Mildred taught at Oberlin School and died young; son Leroy remained in Raleigh for most of his life; son George moved to New York City as a master carpenter; and daughter Christine married a minister and settled in Cincinnati. , Son Lemuel also attended Cornell University and did graduate work at Columbia; he was the first initiate in the prominent Black fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha. In the 1930s, Lemuel moved his family, including his widowed father, from Oberlin to Harlem where they thrived professionally and socially. , Son Willis Jr. (Bill) attended Howard University School of Law and became a prominent civil rights attorney in Detroit. He worked with Thurgood Marshall on Shelly vs. Kramer, the landmark 1948 US Supreme Court case that invalidated racially restrictive covenants. He also assisted the world-famous defense lawyer, Clarence Darrow, in the Ossian Street trials. , Grandson Lem Jr. (Gene) grew up in Oberlin. He was one of the first three Black journalists to travel with a US President (Truman)on an official state visit abroad. After spending more than a decade in Paris working for the US Department of State, he moved to Uruguay after being appointed by President Kennedy to head Voice of America for Latin America. , In 1938 John and Alice Graham bought the house. Graham was a fireman for the original Norfolk and Southern Railroad, and his wife worked at a beauty parlor. A railroad “fireman” stoked coal into a steam-powered locomotive's boiler, a particularly grueling and dangerous job. , Spurgeon and Jeannette Shepard Fields bought the house in 1945 and were well-respected citizens of the Oberlin community. Spurgeon grew up on a farm in Oxford and worked for the News and Observer for three decades. He was Ambassador Josephus Daniels' chauffeur, friend and confidant, especially in Daniels' senior years. Noted for his garden, Spurgeon gave vegetables, flowers and plants to friends and neighbors. Jeannette worked in a fashionable women's clothing store in Cameron Village Shopping Center, where she developed a loyal clientele. , Spurgeon and Jeannette raised a son and three daughters and instilled in them the value of faith, education and community. Spurgeon Jr. (Gabe) served in the military, while daughters Jeannette, Mary and Letitia became educators. They were faithful members of Oberlin Baptist Church, and their home served as a community gathering place. , [Captions (clockwise from top left)] , . NAACP Executive Secretary Roy Wilkins (right) honors Willis (Bill) Graves Jr. (left) and Francis Dent (middle) for their legal victories in racially restrictive covenants cases, NAACP Annual Convention, Detroit, June 1957. Photo from The Crisis magazine. , . Lem Graves Jr. and family in Paris during his appointment by the State Department in the 1950s. National Archives , . Graves family in New York City, 1951. , . Fields family, 1956.