The building legacy of William Sidney Pittman, who arrived in Dallas from Washington, D.C., right before World War I, stands at only seven surviving structures. UT Austin School of Architecture assistant professor Tara A. Dudley says: “His arrival provided African Americans in Texas access to a professional architect within the race — as opposed to relying on white architects as most did — and who, as a Black man, understood the needs and requirements of the African American community.”

Pittman, who was also a tremendously incisive polemic writer and early inspiration for Paul Revere Williams, died in March of 1958 with a portfolio of fifteen completed buildings in the state. Dudley and others are now ardently at work preserving his legacy there and in D.C. (where his 1912 Anthony Bowen YMCA design still stands). As she tells Texas Highways, “[His] work needs to be preserved for future generations as a testament to his significance in the profession of architecture in the U.S. in the first quarter of the twentieth century.”

A list of other historically significant Black churches recently funded by a $4 million National Trust for Historic Preservation grant can be found here.