Black History Month Real Estate Fact

Philip A. Payton, Jr.

Life: 1876-1917

Birthplace: Westfield, Massachusetts

Education: Livingstone College

The Father Of Harlem

Philip A. Payton, Jr. is noted as one of the first Black real estate moguls in the United States. 

Payton made the decision to move to New York City in 1899 after working in his family business, a barbershop and a stint at Livingstone College. He wanted to make a name for himself much to his family’s chagrin. 

When he arrived in the city, he worked at a department store, as a barber and then a porter for a real estate company earning $8 a week. That role would become his inspiration for his life’s work and passion. The next year, he opened his first company, Brown & Payton, in Midtown Manhattan, a real estate agency focused on servicing Black tenements. 

Even after his partner left the business, Payton continued to operate it. During this time, his family faced hunger and poverty, with his wife Maggie supporting the family as a seamstress while the business struggled. They eventually moved to Harlem where Payton noticed the high vacancy rates caused by White owners who did not want Black renters. His first big break was a result of racism and prejudice. 

“My first opportunity came as a result of a dispute between two landlords in West 134th Street. To ‘get even’ one of them turned his house over to me to fill with colored tenants. I was successful in renting and managing this house, after a time I was able to induce other landlords to… give me their houses to manage.” – Payton

Payton continued to convince white owners to put “profit over prejudice.” At the time, Black renters made significantly higher rents than white tenants. Payton would often ask owners why they’d want a unit to sit empty when they could be making even more money if they could ‘overlook’ race. 

This strategy worked especially during a time when African Americans were moving to NYC to escape the oppression, White Supremacy and danger of the South. 

Payton eventually became a building owner, not just a manager. In 1905, he started a new company, the Afro-American Realty Company, which operated until 1908. He later founded another firm, the Philip A. Payton, Jr. Company, a year before his death in 1917. 

While known as “the Father of Harlem” no statue or commemoration honors him in the community. 

Cited: https://www.courbanize.com/blog/philip-a-payton-jr-real-estate-entrepreneur-and-the-father-of-harlem