Who Designed Those? The Peculiar Story of William Sidney Pittman (Jan 28, 2024)

by Scott Sosebee

Sometimes, I have to spend hours trying to think up something to write for this column, while at other times, what I want to present comes quickly. I constantly scribble notes on whatever I have available wherever I am with the hope that I can remember where I put such scraps, or that my Swiss cheese brain will even recall that I once had an idea. Often, those little reminders get put someplace, and I never do get back to such what was, I am sure, a brilliant idea at the time. Today’s effort is the result of finding one of those little jottings squirreled away.

I traveled to Dallas to meet with my late friend Ted Lawe in 2011. Ted took me on a little tour of African American historical sites in the city—of which there are many—and on the outing, we stopped at a gorgeous building on Elm Street near “Deep Ellum.” Ted explained that this was the original state headquarters for the Knights of Pythias, which was a Black fraternal organization. He explained how much pride the African American community had in the Pythian Temple because, as he said, “It was designed by a Black architect, and financed and built solely with Black money. It was our building.” Ted mentioned that the building was designed by William Sidney Pittman, who was Booker T. Washington’s son-in-law. That was what I jotted down, determined to write on it. Well, I put that paper in a drawer in my office and forgot about it, until I found it this week. So, I guess better late than never.

Pittman began his life in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1875. Like so many African Americans of his generation, he grew up in poverty, but also, like so many, he sought education as a way to escape. He attended Tuskegee Institute, where he began to refer to himself as W. Sidney. Tuskegee was what we would call today a “vocational school,” and Sidney excelled at mechanical drawing. His instructors at the Alabama school recognized his skill and encouraged and helped him enter Drexel Institute (now Drexel University) in Philadelphia, where he earned an architectural credential. Pittman returned to Tuskegee in 1900 and taught for five years. While there, he married Portia Washington, the daughter of Tuskegee founder Booker T. Washington.

The couple left Tuskegee and moved to Washington D.C., where Sidney set up a private architectural practice. He found immediate fame and success. He designed the Negro Buildings for the 1907 Jamestown Exposition, commemorating the tercentennial of the founding of that town, and he became the first African American architect to receive a federal contract in 1908. He designed and oversaw the construction of a number of schools and a YMCA that continue to stand in Washington, D.C. Still, despite his fame and accomplishment, Pittman never felt he received his due in the nation’s capital, and most of the lack of recognition came because of his race. White architects did not welcome him to their association, and despite his talent, he still often had to beg for jobs or take projects that paid little. Exasperated and growing increasingly angry, Sidney and Portia left Washington, D.C., and moved to Dallas in 1912.

W. Sidney Pittman established his practice on the edge of Deep Ellum in Dallas as the first African American architect in that city. He practiced for sixteen years in Dallas and designed many of the iconic buildings within the African American community in all of Texas, such as the Allen AME Church in Fort Worth, the St. James AME in Dallas, as well as the Colored Carnegie Library of Houston (demolished in 1962 to make way for the Gulf Freeway), and three buildings on the Paul Quinn College campus. His most noteworthy project was the Pythian Temple, completed in 1915. The Temple became the center of the African American business and cultural community in Dallas. It was wholly financed by contributions from Black citizens and businesses and was constructed by the only African American-owned construction firm in the city, the Walton Construction Company. It is one of the few Pittman structures still standing.

Despite his success in Dallas, Pittman still chafed at the racism he encountered. Whites rarely hired him for jobs, and many Blacks in the city could not afford his fees. He was also eccentric and had difficulty entering what could often be the closed environment of the “Black Establishment” in Dallas. This latter condition moved him to become increasingly bitter; African Americans in Dallas also found him arrogant and condescending at times, and he returned their ire with claims that they were “jealous” of his schooling and expertise. His home life also turned tempestuous, which caused Portia to leave him and move back to Alabama in 1928. Sidney also closed his architectural practice in that year to focus on a new venture, a newspaper he titled “Brotherhood Eyes.”

Pittman’s news outlet was little more than a scandal sheet, and his focus was on fomenting discord and rumormongering toward African American leaders throughout the South. His “reporters” gathered gossip, and he published their findings every Saturday, with little thought as to whether or not they were accurate. It was a popular newspaper, circulation at one time topped 100,000, but it was read more for titillation than exactitude. Above the masthead of every issue was the paper’s slogan in red letters: “A Newspaper That Doesn’t Cross the Color Line.” In 1936, he blasted Black pastors for collecting what he called “exorbitant salaries,” and a group of them vowed revenge. They tried to organize a boycott of his newspaper to little effect but got a boost when a businessman brought charges against Pittman in 1937 for “disseminating obscene material.” A friendly U.S. Justice Department agreed and prosecuted and convicted Pittman for such an offense. He served five years in a federal penitentiary and returned to Dallas in 1939 to live in obscurity until 1958 when he died penniless and forgotten. However, sordid his personal life ended, his architectural successes have stood the test of time. The old Pythian Building, which stood empty for an extended period, has now been renovated to be the Kimpton-Pittman Hotel. The COVID epidemic slowed its original opening date in 2019, but it opened in 2021 and, by all accounts, is marvelous, a tribute to a brilliant but perhaps troubled man.

The East Texas Historical Association provides this column as a public service. Scott Sosebee is a Professor of History at Stephen F. Austin State University and the Executive Director of the Association. He can be contacted at sosebeem@sfasu.edu; www.easttexashistorical.org.