J. Bailey Robeson Papers, PC.1903

James Bailey Robeson (1874-1927), a native of Pender County, N.C., had been a railroad man before he moved to Raleigh in 1917 and took employment with the Raleigh Real Estate and Trust Company. This firm had been incorporated about the year 1901 with a capital stock of $100,000. The Mutual Building and Loan Association of Raleigh, a subsidiary company, was organized in 1911, and the First Mortgage Company, Raleigh, another subsidiary, was organized about 1923.This small collection of business papers was created by the three related firms during the period when Robeson was in their employ or while he served as president or secretary-treasurer. It includes a small body of correspondence dating from 1925 and 1926, a collection of photographs of Raleigh houses taken in the mid-1920s, and three ledgers.

After the death of the first president of the reali estate company in 1925, Robeson was elected president of the First Mortgage Compnay, and secretary-treasurer of the Mutual Building and Loan Association. Robeson also served briefly as president of the Raleigh Real Estate Board and was active in the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, the Merchants' Association of Raleigh, the YMCA, the Boy Scouts of America, the Lions Club, and the Edenton Street Methodist Church in Raleigh. At the beginning of 1927 Robeson organized his own firm, Robeson Bond and Mortgage Company, but died six months later.

The Raleigh Real Estate and Trust Company brokered sales and exchanges of real estate or managed property for its clients. The Mutual Building and Loan Association, on the other hand, was created to facilitate the construction of new buildings on property through savings and by floating small loans of from $500 to $10,000. A growing demand for mortgage money in Raleigh during the years following World War I led to the organization of the First Mortgage Company, a lending firm that also negotiated loans between borrowers and other investors (primarily the Southern Bond and Mortgage Company of Richmond, Virginia).

Business Correspondence, 1923; 1925-1926
Includes letters of Raleigh Real Estate and Trust Company, Mutual Building and Loan Association of Raleigh, and First Mortgage Company of Raleigh, all with offices at 4 E. Martin Street. Most of the correspondence relates exclusively to the operation of the three firms, and it is not always possible to determine from which firm some of the outgoing correspondence originated. All is arranged in a single chronological sequence without regard to firm title. Most of the incoming correspondence is from out-of-state mortgage firms with whom the three Raleigh companies dealt. Included is a 1926 brochure advertising the sixth edition of L. F. Garlington's plan book entitled Bungalow Homes, and a March 10, 1926, letter offering the services of Carolina Custom Cabinet Company, successors to the Marshall Manufacturing Company of Raleigh. A September 3, 1925, letter (with enclosure) addressed to the Raleigh Real Estate Board urges the adoption of "Ten Real Estate Funda­mentals" embracing the ideal of setting aside recreation and public areas when developing real estate subdivisions. An undated carbon copy [but 1926?] speaks of the intention to introduce a bill in the General Assembly to establish a land bank in North Carolina.

Civic Correspondence, 1925-1926
Includes some materials relating to the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce (generally announcements of meetings) and a September 23-24, 1925, announcement of its "State Fair Special" providing excursions via Southern Railroad, Atlantic Coast Line, and Seaboard Air Line, trains from small towns in eastern and southeastern counties. Other letters relate to Robeson's involvement in the Edenton Street Methodist Church, the Lions Club, and so forth. A single folder of two documents includes a blank mortgage payment book for First Mortgage Company and a copy of a 1924 grantee's covenants and agreements governing use and disposition of property in Hayes Barton.

Photographs.
There are 158 photographs of 143 houses in Raleigh in the collection, all of which appear to have been made from early to mid 1920s. Some are original prints, but the majority are recent contact prints made from silver nitrate negatives (now destroyed). The photographs were made for purposes of arranging mortgage financing or for insurances purposes, generally for newly constructed houses (many of them bungalows). Although some photographs were made for the real estate and trust company, others for the mutual building and loan association, and others for the mortgage company, it is' no longer possible to distinguish which were made for whom. They are arranged in folders labeled with the name of the Raleigh street in which the property stood. Usually it is not possible to determine the street number of the structure without visiting the street and looking for the house shown in the photograph. The appendix [See end of this scope note] to this description lists the streets for which there are photographs in the collection, and the number of photo­graphs for houses in each street.

LEDGERS
Property Ledger, 1916-1926, Raleigh Real Estate and Trust Company.
A post-bound ledger of accounts for the various properties sold, exchanged, and managed by Raleigh Real Estate and Trust Company, or property on which the firm held the mortgage or which it was developing (as, for example, the Roanoke Park property). The volume reflects property values, tax rates, and the costs of upkeep. Most of the properties reported in the ledger were located in Raleigh or Wake County, though some were in other counties (Bertie, Burke, Durham, Rockingham, and so forth) or in South Carolina. Except for accounts at the beginning of the ledger, there is a rough alphabetical order by name of the property owner for most of the accounts. Location of the property is recorded on the first page of each account only.

Accounts Ledger, 1916-1923, Raleigh Real Estate and Trust Company.
A half-bound, indexed, volume including a great variety of accounts: expense; inventory; profit and loss; notes receivable; notes payable; salaries; and
so forth. In it, too, are continuations of accounts from the property ledger that were balanced for profit and loss purposes on May 31, 1919. This ledger was closed when balances were struck for profit and loss purposes on Dec. 31, 1922.

Accounts Ledger, 1925-1927, Raleigh Real Estate and Trust Company, and First Mortgage Company.
This post-bound ledger appears to include Raleigh Real Estate and Trust Co. accounts in the first quarter of the volume, and First Mortgage Co. accounts in the remaining three-quarters. Each section is roughly alphabetically arranged by name of account or property owner. The last three-quarters includes accounts of sales of property, including those financed by mortgage (most of them by Southern Bond and Mortgage Company, Richmond, Virginia, and some few by Mutual Building and Loan Co., Raleigh).

ARRANGEMENT
PC.1903.1 (box) Correspondence; Photographs (Adams St. - Brooks Ave.)
PC.1903.2 (box) Photographs (Center Street - Woodland Ave.; Unidentified)
PC.1903.3 (vol) Property Ledger, 1916-1926
PC.1903.4 (vol) Accounts Ledger, 1916-1923 PC.1903.5 (vol) Accounts Ledger, 1925-1927

PHOTOGRAPHS IN THE COLLECTION (STREET BY STREET)
Adams Street (4); Alexander Road (2); Arlington Street (1); Aycock street (7); Bagwell Avenue (1); Beach Ridge Road (3); Benjamin Street (1); Bickett Boulevard (4); Bloodworth Street (3); Bloomsbury Circle (3); Boundary Street (1); Boylan Avenue (3); Boylan Drive (5); Breeze Road (1);
Brooks Avenue (3); Center Street (1); Cole Street (1); Country Club Road (2); Creston Road (4); Cutler street (7); Dare Street (8); Dawson Street (2); Devereux Street (3); Dixie Trail (4); Elm Street (2); Glenwood Avenue (1); Hillsborough Street (2); McDowell Street (1); Mordecai Drive (2);
Perry Street (1); Pershing Road (1); St. Mary's Street (1); West Street (2);
Whitaker Mill Road (23); White Oak Road (11); Wills Avenue (5); Wills Forest Avenue (2); Wilmington Street (1); Winburn Road (1); Woodburn Road (1); Woodland Avenue (2); Unidentified (25)

Page, Frank

Raleigh Merchants Association

J. Bailey, 1874-1927 Robeson

Good Roads Association

North Carolina State Fair

Edenton Street Methodist Church

Methodist Church (U.S.)

Meredith College (Raleigh, N.C.)

Young Men's Christian Association

Mutual Building and Loan Association, Raleigh

North Carolina Orphan Association

Playground and Recreation Association of America

North Carolina State University

Lions Club (Raleigh, N.C.)

Bungalows

Good Roads Movement

Land banks

Mortgage Banks

Parks

Fraternities and Sororities

Real property

Roads

Recreation areas

Real estate development

Raleigh (N.C.)

Wake County (N.C.)

Hatteras