Section 4.
Could Pleasant Litchford Have Repurchased His Landholdings Once They Were In Upper Arlington? (hypothetical)
Pleasant Litchford (1789 - 1879) owned property in Perry Township, Ohio from the early 1830s until his death in 1879. It would be approximately 70 years later that those lands would be annexed into Upper Arlington.
His 227 acres today encompass our high school grounds, Northam Park and Tremont Center. An accomplished blacksmith and a founding member of Second Baptist Church in Columbus, Pleasant was a formerly enslaved man who migrated from Virginia to settle here with his family.
HYPOTHETICALLY, WOULD pleasant — A BLACK MAN — HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BUY BACK HIS LAND IN THE EARLY TO MID 20TH CENTURY?
Yes and no. To answer this question, let’s look at two sections of Pleasant’s property.
Approximate locations of these subdivisions provided above. (1872 map courtesy of UA Archives)
YES - Shield’s Place had no racial deed restrictions.
Several generations of Litchfords owned this strip of land along today’s North Star Road from Ridgeview to Zollinger roads
This subdivision is at the easternmost edge of Pleasant’s former property holdings. Directional north is to the right. Ridgeview Road is at left, and Zollinger Road at right with the outlined properties straddling North Star Road. (Franklin County Recorder online database. Shield’s Place plat map, PB Vol 29, P 31. recorder.franklincountyohio.gov)
Their ownership ended in 1936 when the current owners, Maria Litchford Bryant and husband Charles, attempted to deed the property to their children. They were sued by Ida McKee for fraud, and the Franklin County Court of Commons Pleas found in favor of McKee and declared that the deeds to the Bryant children were void. The Bryants then transferred the property to McKee.
Then in March 1945 McKee sold to Albert Shields, and in 1951 this land was annexed into Upper Arlington. When Shields died in June 1955, the property went to the Huntington National Bank in trust for his wife, Patricia. Huntington sold the property to Paul Decker Realty Company in December 1957, and immediately the property was platted in several lots. There were no unusual restrictions placed on the plat. Between the first deed dated June 1958 and the last deed dated December 1959, there were no racial restrictions recorded for any lot in the Shields’ Place subdivision.
Hypothetically, Pleasant would have been able to repurchase any of these properties at any point.
NO - Brandon Heights Addition had racial deed restrictions.
Another section of Pleasant’s former landholdings, 3.47 acres between today’s Ridgeview and Northam roads on the east side of Andover, became part of the Brandon Heights subdivision platted in 1927.
Fannie Litchford, granddaughter of Pleasant, had inherited this section of property. She sold it to The Arlington Ridge Company in three separate transactions from 1933 to 1940. In turn The Arlington Ridge Company, with King Thompson noted as President, sold the lots to others adding the “Fifth” clause to the property deeds at that time. This land was annexed into Upper Arlington in 1946, a point after many of these transactions had already occurred.
Hypothetically, Pleasant would not have been able to repurchase this portion of his original landholding between the mid-1930s and 1948, after which the racially-restrictive clauses became unenforceable.