Langston Hughes lived in my hometown (Lawrence, KS)

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Born in 1902, Hughes spent his early years living with his mother or grandmother in Lawrence and Topeka. His childhood was a lonely time and he fought the loneliness by writing poetry. One of his early poems, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," was published by Crisis magazine when Hughes was nineteen. Areas connected to Langston Hughes: Lakeview, northwest of Lawrence Charles and Mary Langston, maternal grandparents of Langston Hughes, lived at this site from 1870 until 1886, when they moved to Lawrence. Langston Hughes’s uncle, Nathaniel Turner Hughes, was born at Lakeview in 1870, and Hughes’s mother, Carolina, was born here in 1873. Mary Langston’s mother, Mary Sampson, is listed in the 1880 census as living here, also. She may be buried in the area The Kaw (Kansas) River The Kaw River figures prominently in the Langston and Hughes family history. The Lawrence city hall has a public observation deck on its fourth floor overlooking the river that Hughes refers to in his writings. An historic barbed wire factory, now restored, is in the right foreground, and the electricity generator building is in the middle foreground. Hughes’s uncle Nathaniel worked in a mill just south of the city hall, though it no longer is standing Lawrence National Bank The bank once stood at Seventh. St. and Massachusetts. The bank building was also the meeting place for commerce clubs. The first town library was housed in this building. Lawrence National Bank, Seventh St. and Massachusetts St., demolished. A contract signed by Langston Hughes’ grandmother Mary S. Langston mortgaged the Langston property of 726 Alabama St. (Block 12, south half of Lot 7) to the Lawrence National Bank. The mortgage is dated 28 Feb. 1895. Alfred Whitman notarized it, and James Brooks was the register of deed. St. Luke African Methodist Episcopal Church This Gothic revival building was built in 1910. The building was placed on the register of Kansas historical buildings in 2001 because of its connection to Langston Hughes. Local preservationists are trying to raise money to restore the church. Hughes attended this church when he lived with Auntie and Uncle Reed, as he writes in his autobiography The Big Sea, "Auntie Reed was a Christian and made me go to church and Sunday school every Sunday" (18). The Reeds lived two blocks away at 731 New York St