Lovelace Brown Real Estate

 

Douglas Lovelace Brown was the district's largest black landowner by the mid-1980s, poessising over one hundred acres, including a 72 acre parcel of the Mount Vernon estate, valued at more than $2,100. His real estate jounrey helped shape 19th-century Mount Vernon, Virginia as it is today. The timeline commences in 1872 with Brown's emergence in tax records as the owner of 13 acres on Muddy Hole farm. The narrative gains momentum in 1880 as Brown and neighbors petition for a road, revealing their plan to build.
 
A notable shift occurs in 1884 when Brown, along with wife Emily, enters into deed transactions with Taylor Blunt, marking a calculated liquidation. By 1888, Brown acquires a new estate near Gum Springs, showing his growing influence. The timeline progresses, highlighting a 3.1% property value increase in 1891 and a philanthropic land sale in 1894.
 
The real estate evidence concludes in 1898 with the sale of Brown's Mount Vernon Road house, marking the end of his ownership. Follow the timeline below gain a more developed understanding of Brown's endeavourvs.

[1]   Muddy Hole Farm Park Sign 
[2] Tax Records for Lovelace Brown in 1872, Row 20
[3] Tax Records for Lovelace Brown in 1874, Row 19
[4] Road Petitions, Box 4, RP - 154, Brown & Neighbors in 1880
[5] Deed Book, Page 404, Brown selling to Taylor in 1884 Front
[6] Deed Book, Page 404, Brown selling to Taylor in 1884 Back
[7] Deed Records, Folder F-5, Page 402-403 in 1886
[8] Deed Book, unknown page, Brown purchasing from Wood in 1888
[9] Tax Records for Lovelace Brown in 1891, Row 3
[10]  Table of Tracts, Page 66, Lovelace Brown, Row 3 in 1894
[11]  Deed Book A6, Page 357 Brown selling to Taylor in 1898
[12] CASPER, SCOTT E., and Loren Schweninger. “Out of Mount Vernon’s Shadow: Black Landowners in George Washington’s Neighborhood, 1870–1930.” In Beyond Forty Acres and a Mule: African American Landowning Families since Reconstruction, edited by Debra A. Reid and Evan P. Bennett, 39–62. University Press of Florida, 2012. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvx0716s.10.
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