In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the City’s most exclusive neighborhoods were organized as private streets. These streets (which were not public right-of-ways) were gated, basic services were provided through local assessments, and building design and placement was carefully regulated. But here, the racial restrictions were largely implicit; generated by the exclusivity of the property and not formal restrictive language. Only two of the City’s numerous private streets, West Cabanne Place (1905) and Thornby Place (1908) included explicit racial restrictions in their founding documents. While high property values and tony building standards were seen as sufficient protection in the early years of the century, such presumptions did not always last. As the City’s African-American population grew, some private streets added restrictions by petition in an attempt to stem racial transition.
