1001 Parker St
Raleigh, NC, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Reverend M. L. Latta House (Oberlin, North Carolina MPS)

Statement of Significance:

Located in the freedmen's village of Oberlin, now part of the city of Raleigh, the Reverend M. L. Latta House is locally significant as the home of noted Oberlin citizen Reverend Morgan L. Latta, founder of Latta University in Oberlin. The house is indicative of the financial success that Latta achieved by 1910. Even more importantly, the large size and fashionable aspect of the house illuminate Latta's position as a prominent African American. Unlike many other successful men in Oberlin, Latta often found himself at odds with that community and its ideals. Latta's strong personality and independent nature, along with his ideas about what African Americans should strive for, were often in opposition to the local society and culture. Traveling throughout the United States and overseas promoting his school, Latta won recognition among upper class black and white citizens who, in turn, funded his institution. Part of a statewide trend of establishing African American higher education institutions during the late-nineteenth century, Latta University was distinctive among North Carolina's African American higher education institutions because it was privately funded. It provided an alternative to the other African American educational institutions in Raleigh and the state generally, which were usually affiliated with an established religious institution or society. Just as Latta intended, the school was at his sole discretion, both for financial support and in its governance. From about 1892 to about 1922, Latta operated his institution until financial difficulties forced the loss of all of his holdings in Oberlin.

Architecturally, the Reverend M. L. Latta house is locally significant for its classically- influenced Queen Anne style. Based upon this design and its lack of inclusion in the illustrations of Reverend Latta's 1903 autobiography, it is believed that the house was constructed around 1905. The irregular form of the two-story house and its classical, Tuscan order, porch columns are relatively simple, but this house was one of the largest and most fashionable in Oberlin at a time when small Queen Anne or tri-gable cottages were the norm. Although the condition of the Latta House is only fair, it retains a high degree of architectural integrity both on its weatherboarded exterior and its very simply appointed interior.

The significance of the Reverend M. L. Latta House relates to the Multiple Property Documentation Form "Historic and Architectural Resources of Oberlin, Wake County, North Carolina, 1865-1952" under the following contexts: "The Cultural and Social Life of Oberlin" (pages E 10-22) and "The Jim Crow Years: Modest Prosperity and Sense of Community, 1880- 1950" (pages E 22-28) and under the following property type: "Residential Buildings" (pages F 31 - 36). The Latta House satisfies the registration requirements for its type as set forth in the MPDF (Pages F 35 - 36) in that it possesses the required level of integrity of location, setting, design, materials, and feeling to be an important representation of the historical development of Oberlin; illustrates its direct association with an individual important in Oberlin's history; and is an intact example of an architectural style important in Oberlin's development. The Latta House is eligible for listing in the National Register under Criterion A for African American ethnic heritage and for education as the only remaining property associated with Latta University; under Criterion B for its association with Reverend Latta; and under Criterion C for architecture as an important large and very well-articulated Queen Anne house in Oberlin. The period of significance of the property extends from c.1905, the construction date of the house, until 1922, the year Latta University closed its doors.