Explore the Capitol Hill home of newspaper editors
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In the fifth episode of season 3, Kendra brings you to The Cayton-Revels House in Seattle, Washington. Horace Cayton and Susie Revels Cayton were the home’s first owners. Together the couple owned, edited, and wrote the longest-running Black-owned newspaper at the turn of the century in Seattle. Susie was the daughter of Hiram Rhodes Revels the first Black United States Senator elected in 1870. Through the episode, you learn the Cayton-Revels family story and how it intertwines with this home and with US history.
The private home was recently landmarked through the work of Taha Ebrahimi, who took quick action after learning the history of the home. She had the full support of homeowners Kathy Ackerman and Erie Jones, along with the family friend and descendent of Horace and Susie Cayton, Harold Woodson Jr. It was the friendship of Harold’s mom, Susan Cayton Woodson who helped preserve the family connection to this home.
Read Taha’s landmark application or the book The Cayton Legacy by Richard S Hobbs to learn more about this remarkable family. The archival work of Ed Diaz was extremely helpful in putting together this episode. If you’re interested in doing landmark work watch this recording of Taha’s experience.
Images of the property provided by Kathy and Erie can be found below. You can find a full transcript of this episode.
The music for our show is by Tim Cahill.
If you like this episode and want to hear other episodes about writers check out the following: Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Steepletop, Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House, and inventor and poet Lewis Latimer’s House.
Below is a transcript for S3E5 of Someone Lived Here at The Cayton-Revels House in Seattle, Washington. If you have any questions about the show or suggestions on how to make it more accessible please reach out at someonelivedhere@gmail.com.
Kendra (00:00):
Before we get into the new episode, I wanted to say, hi everyone. It’s been a minute. Episodes for the rest of the season are going to be from the Pacific Northwest since I moved from New York to Seattle. Please hold on at the end so you can hear about my relaunched Patreon with bonus episodes I’ve made from previous recordings. I’m really excited about them. And I think you will be too. Now let’s get into the show.
Kendra (00:22):
This week we’re at The Cayton-Revels House in Seattle, Washington. This Queen Anne house is still a residence with three apartments tucked inside, but 120 years ago it was the home of Horace Cayton and Susie Sumner Revels Cayton. The husband and wife team were writers, editors, and owners of The Seattle Republican, one of the most widely read and influential Black owned newspapers in Washington State. Today we’re going to explore their former home and learn about it’s journey to landmark status.
Kendra (00:51):
Welcome to Someone Lived Here, a podcast about the places people called home. I’m your host Kendra Gaylord. We’re outside this teal blue home on 14th Avenue in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, it’s a block away from 15th, which has coffee shops and restaurants. The house has a two story wrap around porch with greenery climbing up, the windows aren’t perfectly symmetrical, and there is a lawn with roses and hydrangeas. I’m came here with Taha Ebrahimi who is a writer and the director of marketing at a tech company. And she is the reason this home received landmark status in February.
Taha (01:32):
It was during the COVID lockdown in Seattle. And I typically don’t have a lot of free time in my life and suddenly, um, you know, I had all this free time because nobody was doing anything and I got to kind of follow my curiosity down a couple of rabbit holes. And one of them was just looking up the history of Capitol hill, where I live and I had moved to like two or three years ago at that point.
Kendra (01:57):
She was reading the book The Hill with a Future by Jaqueline B Williams
Taha (02:01):
There’s this one small mention of like a house. And it had an address there. It mentioned that one of the few Black Americans in Capitol Hill had lived there. And I thought that was really interesting. And I live in Capitol hill and it was like a couple of blocks from where I lived. And so I walked by it kind of expecting it wouldn’t be there. It was just an address, but it was there and it just looks like you’ve kind of gone through a time warp. It looks literally the same. I was just, you know, I was caught like right then and there. And then after that, I would just kind of include it in my repertoire when I’d be walking around cause those were the only things I could do is like walk and read and watch TV and do weird research. And one day while I was walking by one of the owners was there.
Taha (02:49):
She was there with some, uh, some workers who were fixing some kind of busted pipe of some sort. Apparently those pipe had worked for over a hundred years and suddenly it decided to break down and the house right now is a rental property. So there was no way I could just go knock on the door if I wanted to. So here was the owner and I thought, here’s my chance to say hi. And so I, this was during COVID. So it, it wasn’t normal to like go up to people. You know, this was during the time when people would see you and they would cross the street and go the other way. So I, I went up to Kathy Ackerman and I introduced myself and I asked her if she knew about the history of the house and she said she did, and we just kind of started talking and right there, I got so excited. I asked her, um, if she was interested in getting it landmarked since it wasn’t. And she said she was, and I volunteered to do it. So I didn’t know if I could do one. I didn’t know what a landmark entailed and um, but I was excited and I thought, let’s just take this step by step and see where it goes.
Kendra (03:55):
It went to the Landmark Preservation Board and her 142 page application was approved. One of the many reasons it was approved was because there was full support by the home owners, who have spent decades getting closer and closer to the Cayton’s story.
Erie (04:10):
Kathy and I originally bought the house, um, in the early nineties, I think with two other friends, when, you know, four people could still buy a house in Seattle and they, we Kathy and I already had a house, but we really liked old frame houses and this was a really fascinating old house and it was affordable for four of us. So we wanted to fix it up and preserve it because these old frame houses are coming down really rapidly. It was, it was, it was
Kathy (04:36):
Just, it just felt like so good and Erie was like, cause we were like, oh, should we buy it? And he’s like, “We need to buy this house.” We were uh, and he just go say, “we need to buy this house.”
Erie (04:43):
Well,It was, it was just too cool. And even then again, before knowing the historical significance, it was like, this is a part of a Seattle history. That’s gonna be gone if we don’t protect it. Even just architecturally. Yeah. The house suffered from benign neglect. It hadn’t really been taken care of, but nothing was taken out. It was like walking back into 1910 and we were up cleaning up the attic and we picked up the attic floor boards and we found these old documents signed by Hiram Revels. It was a receipt and a marriage certificate and an old tin type of young black man, with a dog. No, one’s been able and I showed this to your mom Harold. She didn’t know who it was. So it might have been a buddy, you know, of one of the kids mm-hmm . So we started going, who is this Hiram Revels guy? Cause we didn’t know at the time.
Kendra (05:34):
Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first Black Senator of the United States. For just over a year in 1870 he was the US Senator from Mississippi. Immediately following the Civil War there were no Black Americans holding political office in the south, but within 4 years 15% of electoral offices were held by Black Americans – a larger proportion than in the early 90s when Erie and Kathy bought this house.
Kendra (06:00):
Hiram Revels came to Mississippi as a chaplain for the US Army during the Civil War. There he settled down with his wife and their 5 daughters. He was elected as a state senator and it was an opening prayer that got him a big promotion. John Lynch, a Black congressman wrote of Hiram’s journey in his book The Facts of Reconstruction: “That prayer—one of the most impressive and eloquent prayers that had ever been delivered in the [Mississippi] Senate Chamber—made Revels a United States Senator. He made a profound impression upon all who heard him. It impressed those who heard it that Revels was not only a man of great natural ability but that he was also a man of superior attainments”.
Kendra (06:46):
At this point in American politics US Senators were voted on by the states legislature, not a popular vote. Democrats argued that Hiram was ineligible because of his citizenship, even though he was born free in North Carolina. Despite the opposition he won the Republican vote and became the first Black American Senator. Only a few months later he, gave a speech asking for the reinstatement of Black legislators who were ousted from the Georgia General Assembly. He started his speech aware of the precident for new Senators to not hold the floor in their first year, “Mr. President, I rise at this particular juncture in the discussion of the Georgia bill with feelings which perhaps never before entered into the experience of any member of this body. I rise, too, with misgivings as to the propriety of lifting my voice at this early period after my admission into the Senate… When questions arise which bear upon the safety and protection of the loyal white and colored population of those states lately in rebellion I cannot allow any thought as to mere propriety to enter into my consideration of duty. The responsibilities of being the exponent of such a constituency as I have the honor to represent are fully appreciated by me. I bear about me daily the keenest sense of their weight, and that feeling prompts me now to lift my voice for the first time in this council chamber of the nation; and, sir, I stand today on this floor to appeal for protection from the strong arm of the government for her loyal children, irrespective of color and race, who are citizens of the southern states, and particularly of the state of Georgia.”.
Kendra (08:34):
Another Reconstruction era Senator, Blanche Bruce, was elected 4 years later and then there would be an 86 year gap until the next Black senator was elected. When Hiram Revels term as Senator ended he took a role as the first president of Alcorn College in Mississippi. It was there he would teach his future son in law, Horace Cayton. We’re going to learn more about Horace Cayton story in a minute, but first I want to talk a bit more about the surroundings of this house and something that’s mentioned in this landmark application.
Taha (09:10):
An interesting coincidence is that if you look across the street, you see this big public housing complex, it’s kind of a high rise. And on the other side facing the other street, there used to be a house there. And president Barack Obama, when he was a baby lived there for the first year of his life, his mother lived in Seattle and went to the university of Washington. And that was their address.
Kendra (09:39):
Hiram Revels was the first Black US Senator and Barack Obama, 135 years later, was the 5th.
Kendra (09:52):
We’re now going to talk about Horace Cayton, the man who ran the Seattle Republican and was an owner of this home. Horace Cayton was born enslaved on a cotton plantation in Mississippi. When he was six slavery ended in the US. Horaces father was a blacksmith and had gained ownership of a plot of land. Horace started his education and at 13, he was at Alcorn College being taught by the former senator Hiram Rhodes Revels. Horace spent nearly a decade at Alcorn, getting his education, while working on his father’s farm, teaching, and doing bookkeeping for a local newspaper. He was close with the Revels family and when he left Mississippi he kept up a correspondence with them. At 26, Horace headed west, first to Kansas. There he worked for a newspaper as an assistant editor, doing bookkeeping and teaching on the side. He was offered a job in Utah as a bank clerk and was selected out of the 86 applicants. The offer was taken away when he walked in for his first day and they saw his skin color. He found himself at times desperate for work. He worked construction, but his least favorite was working in hotels, “to be whistled for by the passing throngs.”.
Kendra (11:09):
He continued to heading west, until he found himself in Seattle at 31. Here he found his footing in journalism, he was immediately hired as the editor of a small struggling paper that was “devoted to the emancipation of industrial slaves.” The paper would close its doors in less than a year, but he now had connections and was hired as a reporter. He moved between a few papers, but he got a taste for being the boss, when he leased the Seattle Standard. But he was not able to renew that lease. In his editorials he called out high up members in politics like Arthur Denny and the Governor. Black community members feared retribution and boycotted the paper until he pulled back his editorials. As you will see throughout this episode, Horace Cayton did not pull back. .
Taha (11:58):
He was forced out of that paper and started his own weekly paper called the Seattle Republican. And it was successful. He had been sending his former professor , Hiram Revels his writing and clippings throughout the years. Hiram’s daughter, Susie, would write her fathers dictated responses, and send back her own notes and details. She also sent her reporting, the first about what she saw at the Atlanta Exposition. This would be the first of many of her pieces that would be published in the Seattle Republican. In one of these letters back and forth, Horace Cayton proposed to Susie Revels. Susie was 26 and Horace was 37 when they married in Seattle.A letter from her family read, “Mama wishes you a long and happy life. She says tell Mr. Cayton he must take good care of you, as she knows he will do.” Horace and Susie were partners when it came to the paper. The Seattle Republican came out on Saturdays and reported on politics and the local community, it had both Black and white readers. At its height it had a readership of 10,000 across Washington. Susie and Horace welcomed their first child Ruth, and Susie became the associate editor of The Seattle Republican.
Kendra (13:20):
There were times when Horace’s writing put him in jeopardy. And in this case it landed him in jail. Taha is going to tell us more.
Taha (13:27):
In 1901, Horace Cayton published a article accusing the officer at that time, uh, Police Chief Meredith, he accused him of graft.
Kendra (13:40):
Graft is an older term for corruption, often bribery. I imagine when he wrote this sentence he did not expect what happened next. It reads: “Chief Meredith proposes to run quack doctors out of business, which, perhaps is not a bad idea, but we suggest… that he likewise run grafting policemen out of business; then, perhaps, the city of Seattle would be rid of Meredith himself.” Horace was arrested that night for criminal libel. His bail had to be cash and when he got out he gave his quote to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer which led with the headline, “Police Power Used to Oppress: Disgraceful Details of the Arrest and Incarceration of Editor Cayton”
Taha (14:20):
That was one of the largest courtroom crowds that ever assembled in Seattle. At that time, everybody came to see, uh, you know, Horace Cayton in court with, uh, the officer Chief Meredith and, uh, while it ended in a hung jury, that event actually led to the Seattle City Council establishing a special committee to investigate these allegations of police corruption. And that led to the dismissal of police, chief Meredith.
Kendra (14:51):
And the story gets even wilder.
Taha (14:53):
The chief was well, the ex-chief I should say was so upset that he actually took a gun and went to the star witnesses store, who was John Considine. And he took out his gun and tried killing Considine. But Considine in defense took out his gun and I believe it was his brother took out his gun and killed police chief Meredith.
Kendra (15:18):
In a report on Meredith’s death, Horace expressed shock and relief. Meredith was after both Horace and Considine that day. The next year, Horace and Susie were looking for stability. So they bought this house on Capitol Hill.
Taha (15:31):
When this house was being built. Um, one of the builders actually lived at a home that is still standing, just like about half a block down there. That house is still there and it’s the oldest house on this street. So he probably built that house and lived in it while he was building this and then probably sold that house later, too.
Kendra (15:50):
That’s a good commute.
Taha (15:51):
Yeah. It’s not bad at all.
Kendra (15:53):
This home is only a block away from some of the biggest mansions on Capitol Hill. During the years they owned this house they made a few changes. They connect two porches to make it a wrap around, and added a second floor to the original porch, which was more common in the south. The desire to bring a little bit of Mississippi to Seattle makes sense. Susie’s sister had died and her father wanted to reunite the family in Seattle. He wrote in a letter, “My heart is roomy and filled with affection for you and them… O Susie, how greatly we are reduced as a family… this place does not seem the cheerful home it once did.” Before he could make the trip, Hiram Rhodes Revels died. Susie had just had her second daughter, so Horace took the trip to Mississippi to settle the families affairs. Susie’s mother was supposed to come back to Seattle, but she died a month after her husband. Instead Horace brought back papers, photos, and mementos.
Kendra (16:52):
There is a photo of the Cayton Family in 1904 taken on this very front porch. You can see the glass window with a diamond detail behind Horace Cayton, below him, his daughter and to his right his wife Susie holding their newborn, at her feet is Ruth, their first child, moving so quick that the photo could barely capture her. And when you look at this house now you can still see that exact window with the diamond detail. And that’s not the only thing that has been left unchanged.
Kendra (17:25):
In this house, Susie and Horace had two sons. Their four children lived here and there are still hints of their presence in a bedroom upstairs. Along the top of the wall near the ceiling is an old wallpaper border, it’s browned with age, but the ducks still continue their march around the perimeter.
Kendra (17:44):
While they lived here, more newspapers started in Seattle and often they were focused on appealing to either white or Black readers; Horaces paper had always been a bridge between both. It’s hard to know if his writing got more political or if the Republican Party and their papers were starting to shift. White owned Republican publications began reprinting articles from Southern states, describing the lynching of Black men as justice for the alleged rape of white women. In response Horace wrote an article titled, “What of the Poor Black Woman?” His piece reads, “The world seldom if ever gets the black man’s side of the story…. The white men of the South do not practice just what they preach. How many black mothers and fathers hearts have been made to bleed over the downfall of the daughters to satisfy the criminal lust of white men.” After this article was published, Horace was met with slurs printed in competitors papers and barely veiled death threats. He was the editor of the longest running Black Owned newspaper but his readership was declining. Taha is going to tell us about a local real estate agent who tried to push out Black Seattle residents, like the Caytons.
Taha (18:56):
There was a local real estate agent, uh, who actually sued them for bringing down the value of neighborhood property by living there. Cayton, he was enraged and he used his newspaper to publish articles about the real estate agent. The real estate agent actually lost that suit,
Kendra (19:20):
But that loss didn’t change the shift happening in Seattle and across the country.
Taha (19:24):
When he first came to Seattle, he was quoted saying, “When I first came out to this territory, a man was as good as his word. I went out in man to man competition and was successful. I had high hopes. It would continue that way. I believed in the country.”
Kendra (19:39):
A few months after the lawsuit with Dan Jones the real estate agent, an ad was in the paper renting out their house. Soon they would have to sell it, moving into an apartment building they purchased. Horace wrote about turning 54 in The Seattle Republican, “’God Bless our home,’sighs him on whose head the weight of fifty odd seasons press heavily and whose tingling fingers vainly search the recesses of an empty pocket for a penny for bread. He thoughtfully runs over the past and thinks, what might have been, and from the past and the present he madly plunges into the future and exclaims, what will it be? The man fifty past with neither present nor a future is like unto a ship in mid ocean without sail or rudder, it may drift to land, but the odds are decidedly against it.” The last issue of the Seattle Republican came out two months later. It had ran for 19 years and was the end of an era for the Cayton family. Although Horace and Susie would continue writing, their position in society had changed. And at the time of all this change, they had their youngest daughter, Lillie. She was 7 years younger than the previous youngest and her experience as a Cayton was much different.
Kendra (20:58):
Horace applied for a job opening as a state auditor, his friend said he was qualified but he would not be allowed to give him that job. And the only job he could offer insinuated was as a janitor. Horace created a new smaller paper called Cayton’s Weekly. It was half the size of the Republican, 4 pages, and focused more on his local community. The oldest child Ruth, who was blurry in that family photo, was working as a waitress and recently got married. She had a one year old child, named Susan. Then, she and her husband broke up and he left for Portland. She went to visit him a few months later. Her brother, Revels, remembers being home when he heard the news, “Someone came to the door and started pounding…. And she said, “Mr. Cayton, Mr. Cayton!” And my dad said “Yeah?” She said, “Ruth died in Portland at the hospital.” There was a real cold silence in the house.”.
Kendra (21:53):
Ruth had been pregnant when she visited her ex and had tried to give herself an abortion with medicine from a friend. Her daughter, Susan was one and became the youngest child of the Cayton family. She recalled every mothers day being given a white carnation, while her siblings got red. It wasn’t until she was a young adult that she understood it was to memorialize the mother she thought was a sister.
Kendra (22:21):
The rest of the Cayton children were growing up. Both sons worked on steamships while in high school. They both deeply felt the racism and segregation occurring in Seattle. Horace Jr, was arrested at a movie theater for refusing to sit in the segregated balcony. Although Horace Senior had found himself in jail on many occasions for similar protests, it was hard to see his son experiencing the same thing decades later. The younger son, Revels continued working on ships and became a leader in maritime unions, and a community organizer.
Kendra (22:55):
He remembers a conversation between him and his father in 1932, during the depression: I came home and found my father sitting on the front stoop of our house. “Hey, Dad, what’s wrong?” I asked seeing him looking thoughtfully at the ground. He looked up and answered, “ I just voted for a Democrat, son.” “Well, what’s so bad about that, the Democrats are gonna feed ya?” I snapped back. “Yes, that’s true,” he said, “but the Republicans Party freed me.”.
Kendra (23:25):
Horace had spent so much of his career as a Republican. It was the name of his paper and it was the politics he engaged in. But as the parties were shifting, he found a piece of his identity was shifting too. Horace Cayton died at the age of 81 and his son Revels wrote down some of his fathers final words, “The real test is whether you can live a good life– whether you can live among men as a man, and have no real deep regrets about anything. I’ve lived a good life. Really, I’ve lived a good life, and I’ve got good children to show for it, and a wonderful wife. That’s all one can expect. So, when I die the light will be gone. I will have done my part for the world.”
Kendra (24:10):
In his later years, Horace was focused on the past, looking inward, talking about his past and Reconstruction. Susie on the other hand was focused on the future and turned her energy outward. She was inspired by her son Revels, she was the Secretary of the Skid Row Unemployed Council. The list of organization she was involved with was long and her schedule only had an off day on Wednesdays for reading. She was making young friends, Paul Robeson and Langston Hughes. The majority of Susie and Horace’s children had found a new home in Chicago where a Black Renaissance was occuring. Two years after Horace’s death, Susie joined them in Chicago. Lillie stayed in Seattle, despite interest in joining her family, it was not reciprocated. Lillie was an alcoholic. She was a survivor of a traumatic sexual assault and her formative years were during the Cayton family’s hardest. She had little in common with her siblings and both parties felt the other had turned away. Her mother was upset with Lillie’s multiple marriages and divorces. Despite Susie’s progressive views she still had a very traditional view of marriage.
Kendra (25:21):
She wrote a letter with advice to her daughter in law which provided context to her marriage with Horace “who loved her devotedly but who was hell to live with.” She wrote: “Since it was impossible to fully unite my efforts with my husbands… I would join him whole-heartedly whenever the opportunity presented itself, steelhandedly pushing my own project yet comforting him when he wished it and loving him always… I concluded that the wonder is not that there are so many misunderstandings in married life but that there are not more; two unities with contrasting modes of reactions, contrasting approaches to reality and contrasting degrees of self-mastery trying to meet the complex demands of human existence in unison.” Susie Revels Cayton died in Chicago in her early 70s. She was a woman who accomplished so much, while still fitting into the rigid requirements of her gender, her race, and her role. And those accomplishments were witnessed by her children who were working hard to try and live up to the example she set.
Kendra (26:26):
Lillie was in her 40s when she got sober and started seriously going to AA. Her younger sister, Susan, remembers going with her to a meeting and you can feel the love in her description. “She said, “My name is Lillie Cayton Fisher , and I’m an alcoholic (the Cayton was put in for me). It just seemed like the whole room closed off, like the curtains came down. I saw nobody. Lillie was looking at me; I was looking at her. There was no one in the room but two sisters talking… Lillie said, “Susan,” and started a story, about how she dug down to the bottom, the rocks, and then after she hit the rocks she dug a little deeper. She couldn’t go any deeper. She must have shook hands with the devil. Then she started telling how she came up. Lillie came back just glowing, just like she’d seen the Lord. I didn’t know how to accept the glow, it was so beautiful. …I was just saying in my heart, “Mama, Madge, where are ya? You’ve got to hear it! You’ve got to see it!”
Kendra (27:32):
Lillie became very involved in Alcoholics Anonymous in Seattle and became a community organizer in her own right. In 1970, I-90 was built through a predominantly Black neighborhood in Seattle, Lillie was hired to assist families with relocating. The profile she wrote showed how she had reconnected with her family legacy: “Lillie Fisher, the youngest in the family, carries on with the family tradition. She continues to lift people up and is a great encouragement and tribute to her family…She is always looking and hoping to help somewhere, somehow , and to put a little happiness where happiness may be lost and a person needs a friend.”.
Kendra (28:10):
Susan continued to live in Chicago where she had a family of her own, but she visited Seattle whenever she could. And while there, she would go see the original house where so many of the family stories started. In Taha’s nomination document there are endless photos of the interior, all the many things that never changed. The wood fireplace mantle with green tile and a mirror above, the built in kitchen cabinet with a compartment for the ice box. The original front door. I want to talk about that front door and all the other details with Harold, Susan’s son.
Harold (28:44):
My mother’s, uh, anytime you wanted to ask her where she wanted to travel, cause she could have traveled anywhere. It was always to Seattle to come back to that home, to see it. We were so lucky that Kathy and Erie had purchased the home due to the fact that they had the best caretakers of this home and have involved us, you know, in certain aspects of color or landscaping or this and that. I mean, being family it’s been, it’s just been a wonderful relationship that we’ve all that we’ve all had. I think when the first time I visited the house, the one thing that you told me, the only thing that was missing was, uh, one brick from the, the fireplace. And you found that in the backyard. Yeah. And then just the other piece that was just so you know, phenomenal was the fact that the lock on the front door is original from when the house was built. Mm-hmm
Erie (29:41):
The doors are. Yup.
Harold (29:42):
If Horace Cayton Senior came, came back, you know,
Kathy (29:47):
It would work
Harold (29:47):
He could walk right in
Kendra (29:49):
This home feels a lot like a time capsule and considering how little has been changed I wondered what Kathy and Erie had in mind for it’s future.
Erie (29:57):
Taha and I had talked a little bit about maybe getting like a national status, which is another thing. And then, you know, we we’re Kathy and I have been reluctantly working on our wills, putting that off. And so we wanna figure out some way to get status for that house so that it never comes down. That it’s always present.
Kendra (30:16):
I had to ask if they’d ever thought of a historic house museum.
Kathy (30:19):
So yeah we’re interested in doing something like that. We don’t know if it would just be like in the future, like a room or something or something like your mom had Harold, that was just, I don’t know. People, people made appointments to come into her gallery.
Harold (30:31):
Yes, yes.
Kathy (30:33):
It could be something like that, depending on what the first cause it’s mainly the first floor that we would, we would have open to public.
Kendra (30:41):
They’re talking with Harold about his mom’s gallery which she ran in Chicago and where Kathy and Erie had visited. A house museum is still a distant dream, but I’m glad they dream of it, just as much as I dream of visiting.
Erie (30:53):
Having the tangible link just makes such a difference. You know, you can read about history and sort of understand, but when you go to a place you can start at, you know, you can look at the, like the stair rails in the Cayton house and, and you know, it’s, it’s been rubbed smooth from decades of people going up and down the staircase. So, you know, like Susie Revels ran her hand on the staircase and the kids ran up and down the stairs. So you can just, it just makes it just so much more vivid, you know? And, and these kind of histories that we’re talking about with the Cayton-Revels family, I mean, you can find these all over the United States there just had just, haven’t been told yet
Kendra (31:31):
The more I explore different places for this show, the more I know that Erie is right. There are so many amazing stories that have yet to be uncovered. And I’m so grateful for the work of the Cayton family and descendents who have been telling their amazing story all along. Susan Cayton Woodson died in January of 2013. She was remembered for her art and her mentorship of the artist community in Chicago. She archived her families history, ensuring this legacy was preserved. Like her mother and father before her, her ashes were spread in Seattle, but this time even closer to home, at the family home.
Harold (32:10):
Um, I felt the, you know, the, the, the warmth of, of that house, you know, the, the porch was always been, you know, a, uh, an area for meeting and greeting people, you know, from there before coming into the house. Uh, I remember that, well, that time when I was there, uh, spreading my mother’s ashes, you know, there was, I was, you know, feeling her spirit, you know, on that, on that porch. You know, she was there.
Kendra (32:38):
I’m going to read a piece written by Susie Revels Cayton and published in Cayton’s Weekly in 1918 entitled, “Last Rights.” Susie wrote it for a friends funeral. “I rejoiced that in our pilgrim’s journey thro’ this land of soul-trying preparations, the lines of our live s had, for a time, touched. That tho’ she had reached the commencement of another life in a place prepared for those who keep the keep, I could ever carry with me, while yet dwelling here, the inspiration her life had given.”
Kendra (33:14):
Thank you for listening to this episode of Someone Lived Here. Thank you to Taha, Harold, Kathy and Erie for their help with this episode and their work to preserve this history. I was able to access some archived books thanks to Seattle Public Library and the archival work of Ed Diaz. If you want to learn more about this family I highly recommend the book The Cayton Legacy by Richard S Hobbs, which I used for my research.
Kendra (33:40):
I just restarted my Patreon, and as a member you get access to bonus podcast episodes. They are 10-20 minute episodes where you get to hear interviews that I couldn’t fit in the original. For example the first bonus episode on the Alice Austen House includes an Australian ship rebuilt from Alices photos, how her photographs taught women how to bike and a journey up the stairs to her dark room. As of recording the Alice Austen House, Lewis Latimer House, Sailor’s Snug Harbor, and the Pollock-Krasner House and Studio all have bonus episodes up. Thank you for listening this far and please subscribe and leave a review. Follow me on TikTok and YouTube for more house related content.
Sources:
The Cayton Legacy: An African American Family by Richard S Hobbs, 2002
The Cayton-Revels House Landmark Nomination Application by Taha S Ebrahimi
The Facts of Reconstruction by John R. Lynch, 1913
Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution by Eric Foner, 1988
Hiram Revels Speech The State of Georgia, 1870
Stories by Cayton: Short Stories by Susie Revels Cayton A Seattle Pioneer compiled and edited by Ed Diaz – accessed through Seattle Public Library
