The Ida B. Wells-Barnett House was the residence of

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

advocate

Ida B. Wells Ida B. Wells (full name: Ida Bell Wells-Barnett) (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931) was an American investigative journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for ...

(1862–1931) and her husband Ferdinand Lee Barnett from 1919 to 1930. It is located at 3624 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in the Bronzeville section of the

Douglas Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals *Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking *Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil W ...

community area on the South Side of

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. It was designated a

Chicago Landmark Chicago Landmark is a designation by the Mayor and the City Council of Chicago for historic sites in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Listed sites are selected after meeting a combination of criteria, including historical, economic, archite ...

on October 2, 1995. It was listed on 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 ...

and as a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

on May 30, 1974.

Description and history

The Ida B. Wells-Barnett House is located on Chicago's South Side, on the west side of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive roughly midway between 35th and 37th streets. It is a three-story structure built out of ashlar granite in the Romanesque Revival style which was popular around 1890. The front facade is divided into a large right bay, a smaller left bay, and an angled left corner section, from which a turreted bay projects on the second and third levels. The main entrance is deeply recessed behind a segmented arch in the right bay; the other bays have windows set in round-arch openings. The right bay is topped by a gabled wall dormer with a pair of round-arch windows at its center. The interior's original layout had a side hall plan, with public rooms on the ground floor, bedrooms on the second, and a ballroom on the third. The building has been subdivided into apartments. The house was built about 1889–90 to a design by architect Joseph Thain. It was purchased in 1919 by writer and activist

and her husband, attorney Ferdinand Lee Barnett, and served as the couple's home until 1929. Of three addresses they were known to have lived at in Chicago, this is the best preserved. Wells, born into slavery in

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

in 1862, was educated at

Rust College Rust College is a private historically black college in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Founded in 1866, it is the second-oldest private college in the state. Affiliated with the United Methodist Church, it is one of ten historically black colleges ...

and became a teacher. She was an outspoken advocate for African-American civil rights, and regularly wrote about the brutality of 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, particularly on the subject of

lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...

. In the early 1890s she met Barnett, a Chicago attorney also active in civil rights; they married in 1895. Wells continued her writing and activism, and was a founding organizer of the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

Gallery

Image:20070601 Wells House (3).JPG, Tribute on front lawn Image:20070601 Wells House.JPG, Tribute continued

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wells-Barnett, Ida B., House Houses completed in 1889 Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Chicago National Historic Landmarks in Chicago 1889 establishments in Illinois Chicago Landmarks Ida B. Wells

Description and history

Gallery

See also

Notes