Early Black Businesses

Early Black Businesses. . Some early African American businessmen traveled throughout the city with horse and wagon, offering their services in construction, house cleaning, gardening, and transporting goods. Others owned stores near the beach in Ocean Park. In the decades that followed, anti-Black discrimination routinely forced Black businesses and homes further east, away from the prime oceanside real estate. , Gordon Day Work Company , In 1902 Walter Gordon opened the Gordon Day Work Company, a janitorial and house cleaning service at Pier and Ocean Avenues. He lived nearby at 104 Bicknell Avenue. Over his eight years in business, he employed up to seventeen men of various ethnicities. Some are pictured in this 1906 photograph on their bicycles, with a company sign between the wheels. In 1923 Gordon started a real estate firm, the Walter L. Gordon Company, in Los Angeles. , William H. Dumas (left, upper) , William H. Dumas used his horse team to bring goods and services to clients in the Santa Monica area. This photograph accompanied a 1939 business advertisement, where be described his service as “proven satisfactory” with his customers. , Gilbert McCarroll's Shoeshine Parlor , Gilbert McCarroll opened his shoeshine parlor at 121 Pier Avenue in 1907, around the time he took this photograph. When the shop closed in 1910, he worked as a doorman for the California Bank. In 1928 he launched a popular but short-lived cafe at 18th Street and Broadway. , Photo credits (top to bottom) , . Arthur Reese Family Archives and the Walter L. Gordon, Jr./William Beverly Collection, Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA , . Norman E. Hensley Collection and Mary Waters Collection , . Santa Monica History Museum Collection