Black Lives Next Door in Fairfax

Louisa Ferguson owned property on Telegraph Road in the Mount Vernon district. As for information on this property, the first record found listing Louisa as an owner/taxpayer is the 1920 land tax book entry. What is interesting about this is that the entry is from about 35 years after Louisa’s passing. The property would have been in the hands of her children at this point, but there is missing information from during this time gap. The owner of the property is listed as “Louisa and children” nonetheless.

It is striking that there are no land tax book entries from when Louisa was alive, especially given that she would have had the property for at least a couple decades. Historic Records Center workers stated that this could be because she inherited the property from her mother. There is no official documentation of the transfer of property or tax records. This gives quite a bit of context to what life was like for black Americans in this period. For example, the family either may not have been aware that they had to file, or if they did, they may not have been able to afford the fees associated with it.

The 1948 land tax book entry is the last in which Louisa and her family are mentioned. After this, they stopped paying taxes on the property, but it does not mention any kind of selling of the property. However, it is known from the 1948 land deed that the property was purchased by a man named Courtland H. Davis from Louisa’s family. It has a diagram and exact location of the property, describing that Davis paid $650 in cash for it. This is the final piece to the story of Louisa and her children’s ownership of the property.

Deed Book 608, page 1, Fairfax Circuit Court Historic Records Center

Land tax records in Mount Vernon Magisterial District for the year 1920, Fairfax Circuit Court Historic Records Center

Land tax records in Mount Vernon Magisterial District for the year 1948, Fairfax Circuit Court Historic Records Cente

By: Alyssa Turner