[Sign for Chowan Beach, An African American Resort] African Americana,Business,Segregation

Photographically illustrated sign on thin card stock measuring 14" x 22". Very good with light to moderate dust soiling. This is a sign advertising Chowan Beach which includes a photographic panorama of its facilities. According to blackpast.org: "Chowan Beach was an African American playground founded in 1926 when Eli Reid of Winton, in Hertford County, North Carolina, converted an abandoned fishing beach along the Chowan River into a family-oriented resort for African Americans . . . Under Reid s ownership Chowan Beach became a place of quiet dignity where middle class African Americans could vacation for a day or a week . . . Located on the Chowan River near Albemarle Sound, Chowan Beach was a four hundred-acre gathering place and destination for middle class African Americans during the segregation era when vacation opportunities were limited. Over the years Reid welcomed a long list of vacationers from throughout North Carolina and Virginia including bankers, insurance company executives, dentists, medical doctors, surgeons, optometrists, attorneys, business managers, engineers, secondary school educators, and college professors from many of the historic black colleges in North Carolina and Virginia." Reid sold the property in 1967 and it continued to operate throughout the 1990s. We date the sign to no earlier than 1952 as it mentions U.S. Highway 13 which came into existence in 1952. OCLC locates no copies, and one sold in a recent Swann sale.