Tate Arms - Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Tate Arms - Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Tate Arms, also known as the Charles and Dorothy Alberts House and the Williams Hotel, is a historic building located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. The University of Iowa started to admit African American students in the 1870s, but they were rare before the 1910s. The university constructed dormitories in the 1910s, but they did not allow African Americans to live in them until 1946. Completed in 1914 for Charles and Dorothy Alberts, this house was Iowa City's first rooming house that was built for black tenants and owned by black landlords. Charles Alberts was a stonemason and he operated a cement block manufacturing business. He might have built the house himself. The first black university student started to reside here in 1920. The building was acquired by local attorney Edward F. Rate, who was white, in the 1920s and he continued to rent to African Americans. From c. 1928 to c. 1932 the house was known as the Williams Hotel after its proprietor James Williams, who also owned a car wash. Read more on Wikipedia
Source: en.wikipedia.org