Howard Heights

Formerly a part of the then all white Windsor community. Howard Heights, a much smaller African American community developed in 1943 along with the employment boom at the Navy Yard. Dr. J. Hoffman, a prominent African American doctor named the community in honor of Howard University. The late Rev. Samuel Martin, Sr. one of the founding members of Mt. Olive Baptist Church was instrumental in the development of Howard Heights.

Some of the families that acquired land in 1940s were, the Paynes, Robertson, Browns, Wilson, Calhoun, McCray, Martin, Washington, Hoffman, Jackson, Murray, Clark, Thompson, Gibbs, Sheppard and Nelson.

Union Heights and Howard Height were founded as residential communities on soggy and swampy land deemed valueless, for the black employees of the companies surrounding the community. Separated by a deep ditch was the adjacent community of Windsor Place. A neighborhood for primarily white shipyard workers. Homes within the sub-neighborhoods of Union Heights and Howard Heights are believed to be built from the scrap pieces of lumber, according to one historian. This would account for the irregular lengths of boards visible on many of the homes currently existing in Union Heights.

Learn more at: https://www.unionheightscc.org/