[African Americana]. [California]. Dones, Sydney

Eureka Villa [wrapper title]

[Los Angeles or Chicago: ca. 1926]. Single sheet, 9.25 x 16 inches, folded three times vertically to form a slim 8pp. pamphlet. Minor edge wear, dust-soiling, and rubbing. Very good. Item #4630

A very rare, and until recently unrecorded, pamphlet touting the advantages of Eureka Villa, a new real estate development near Los Angeles aimed at African Americans. Sydney Dones was the developer, and head of the Eureka Villa Improvement Association with offices in Los Angeles and Chicago. Eureka Villa was founded on about a thousand acres purchased by Dones and his fellow investors in 1924 near the long-abandoned Mexican mining town of Val Verde. The planned community was envisioned as an affordable and welcoming home and vacation destination for Black folks in southern California, who were otherwise excluded from most public amenities and priced well out of home ownership anywhere near the city.

The present pamphlet or flyer includes a poem about the community by Dones himself, information on how to buy a lot, a short introduction by Dones, but is mostly comprised of a long series of detailed questions and answers about the development. An example of the latter: "Q. What work can we get near Eureka? A. Eureka is just one and a half hours' ride from Hollywood, where a large number of our people are employed, and too, there will be a number of people needed to build Eureka Villa." No copies in OCLC, but a fellow bookseller recently sold one from their African Americana catalogue.

Price: $1,750.00