The Fairbanks Flats are four apartment buildings in

Beloit, Wisconsin Beloit is a city in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 36,657 people. History Twelve men in Colebrook, New Hampshire, created the "New England Emigrating Company" in October 1836 and sent ...

, built in 1917 by

Fairbanks Morse Fairbanks, Morse and Company was an American manufacturing company in the late 19th and early 20th century. Originally a weighing scale manufacturer, it later diversified into pumps, engines, windmills, coffee grinders, radios, farm tractors, fee ...

to house black workers arriving from the South. The flats segregated the black families, but also constitute the kernel of Beloit's black community. In 1983, they were added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

History

At the start of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Fairbanks-Morse was Beloit's largest employer, producing engines. In 1914 the company began to produce a marine diesel engine, requiring more workers. To meet labor needs, F-M brought in

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

factory workers, many from the

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

. With . Six families came in 1915 - 250 by 1917. Many of the arrivals were unskilled laborers, but there were also

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

s, molders,

oilers Oiler may refer to: Ships * Replenishment oiler * Tanker (ship) Sports * Cape Breton Oilers, a former American Hockey League team * City Oilers, Ugandan basketball team * Edmonton Oilers, a National Hockey League team based in Edmonton, Alberta, ...

, and a foreman. The influx of new workers produced a housing shortage and Fairbanks-Morse worked to solve the problem. Its subsidiary Eclipse Home Makers, Inc. bought the land that Fairbanks Flats now occupies on the west side of the Rock River across from the factory and planned the rather plain flats there, aiming to contain "the large number of negroes in one place" on what was then the edge of town. Meanwhile, the company was planning a separate development for its white employees with single-family homes and curved streets - Eclipse Park - designed by New York architect George B. Post.

Segregation Segregation may refer to: Separation of people * Geographical segregation, rates of two or more populations which are not homogenous throughout a defined space * School segregation * Housing segregation * Racial segregation, separation of humans ...

wasn't a huge concern then, but the purchase of land for Fairbanks Flats was, because F-M snapped it up just before the city planned to acquire it to be part of a city park/boulevard system. Many felt the tract of land was key to the park system, and the city threatened to condemn the land to stop the land deal. The mayor of Beloit warned that the project could create "class bitterness that will be enduring and most undesirable for years to come." Nevertheless, F-M went ahead with its project. Construction began in late 1917. Four apartment blocks were built - each with six 2-story apartments. Each building has walls of concrete block, shed roofs, and

parapets A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Wher ...

topping the side walls. The double doors in the front middle of each building is sheltered by a canopy. A simple band of protruding block connects the tops of the windows on each story, but otherwise the buildings are not decorated. In following years, Fairbanks-Morse brought in J.D. Stevenson from

Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature. The campus was de ...

to start a

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

for black youths nearby. The apartments came to be called the Edgewater Flats, but were still administered by F-M officials as late as 1929. Ownership changed after

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and people outside of Fairbanks-Morse could rent there. Nevertheless, the Flats remained predominantly black. The NRHP nomination considers the Flats significant as "an example of the role of private corporations in community planning during an era of rapid industrialization" and as "the nucleus of Beloit's twentieth century black community."

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Beloit, Wisconsin Apartment buildings in Wisconsin Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin African-American history of Wisconsin Residential buildings completed in 1917 National Register of Historic Places in Rock County, Wisconsin Fairbanks-Morse Company housing