(BUSINESS) Group portrait of the staff of the Southern Aid S

Sale 2534 - Lot 185

Price Realized: $ 625

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750

(BUSINESS.) Group portrait of the staff of the Southern Aid Society. Photograph, 7 1/2 x 9 1/2 to sight in original paper mat, 11 x 13 inches; minor dampstaining and wear to mat. [Richmond, VA], circa 1920s

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The Southern Aid and Insurance Company was founded in 1893 as the nation's first chartered black-owned insurance company, later becoming the Southern Aid Society of Virginia and then the Southern Aid Life Insurance Company. Their building at 527 North 2nd Street (shown here) was built in Richmond in 1908, designed by John A. Lankford, and is said to be "the first exclusively African American office building in the country, being the result of a collaboration between a black patron, architect, and contractor" (Selden Richardson, "Built by Blacks: African American Architecture and Neighborhoods in Richmond). They remained in the building until 1931.