(BUSINESS) Moore Fred R Letter by a prominent Harlem busines

Sale 2534 - Lot 182

Unsold

Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750

(BUSINESS.) Moore, Fred R. Letter by a prominent Harlem business leader concerning "the Fortune property." Letter Signed to John Stillwell Applegate of Red Bank, NJ, on the printed letterhead of the Afro-American Investment and Building Company as president. One page, 10 1/2 x 8 inches; folds and minimal wear. With original stamped envelope. Brooklyn, NY, 16 December 1905

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Fred R. Moore has been described as "the best known and revered businessman in Harlem" (Shannon King, Whose Harlem Is This, Anyway?, page 25). He was the founder and president of the Afro-American Investment and Building Company, and was a close associate of Booker T. Washington. This letter was written to a prominent white attorney. It concludes with an intriguing proposal: "Do you think you could find a purchaser for the Fortune property? Don't you think it should bring six thousand dollars? This in confidence. Wish you the compliments of the season." This likely refers to Timothy Thomas Fortune, a fellow associate of Booker T. Washington's who was then publisher of the New York Age. Fortune suffered a nervous breakdown around this time, and Moore bought the newspaper from him in 1907. We have traced no other Moore letters at auction.