Ellison Family's Home (1914) 218 N. Stiles

With the arrival of Ralph Ellison, the small one-room apartment at the rear of the J. D. Randolph home on East First was no longer sufficient to house the growing family of Lewis and Ida Ellison. In 1914, the family moved a half-block north into this single-family home on Stiles Avenue. 

Continually ambitious, despite circumstances, and proud, the Lewis and Ida Ellison family moved into a newly constructed single-family house at 218 N. Stiles when Ralph was about eighteen months old. The house was in a new neighborhood located in the Military Addition, part of a boom in real estate allowing Blacks to push north and east in expanding Oklahoma City. The house was the last house on the eastern side of the avenue, likely rented to the family by the influential J.D. Randolph, who would be an important influence throughout Ralph’s years in Oklahoma City. North Stiles overlooked the rear of Second Street, the rising Black commercial hub of the east side of the city. A series of wood-framed businesses included Andrew Rushing’s café, Dr. Webster Slaughter’s thriving medical practice, a dental office, and a pharmacy. This promising environment would have upheld the couple’s dream of defying residential jim crow and justifying their choice to come to the American West instead of staying in the Deep South. Similar aspirations motivated Ida Ellison during her residence on N. Stiles. She became an active political campaigner in the 1914 election for state and national Socialist candidates Fred Holt, a coal miner turned Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate, and Eugene Debs, the presidential candidate. 

Jackson, Lawrence. Ralph Ellison: Emergence of Genius. New York City, New York. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002.