The Rapp Road Historic District (RRHD) is a cluster of 23 homes built by African Americans who migrated predominantly from Shubuta Mississippi as part of the Great Migration (1927 to 1963). During this time span, 23 families chose to build their homes and raise a family in the Pine Bush section of Albany
New York. The southern style shotgun homes (front door and back door with rooms on right and left side) are unique to the Dutch Colonial and decidedly urban architecture of Albany. RRHD is on both the (2002) and (2003) national registries. Both acknowledgments are the result of the rich history associated with the homes and the families that built them on Rapp Road.
Presently, some of the homes are owned by the aging children or grandchildren of the original owners who built them. People who lived in the south and more specifically Shubuta, Mississippi who visit Rapp Road cannot believe the resemblance of where they once lived. RRHD is Albany’s only African American focused historic district and a part of the 3 percent of all National Register listings that celebrates African American heritage. This community is one of the only intact African American communities in which their descendants are living in dwellings constructed because of (by people who took part in the) of the Great Migration.
Thirty-one Rapp Road was built in 1947 in RRHC by Albert and Susie Fairley (migrants from Greenwood, MS). Upon their death, the home was passed down to Hosea and Maybell Fairley (2nd gen.). Hosea and Maybell resided in the home with their two daughters (3rd gen.). Currently, the home has fallen into disrepair. Thirty-one Rapp Road is a wood frame, single story bungalow style house which resembles the homes in Mississippi. A preliminary safety review of the home revealed that the home is in fair to poor condition, structurally sound with a good foundation. The house has localized failure centered around a roof leak that has caused a non-bearing wall to collapse into a hole in the floor. The second floor by the leak has not collapsed, but is compromised. An addition to the rear, connecting the house to the garage has also collapsed.
Rapp Road Historical Association 