The incredible story of Lewis Latimer and how to visit his house in Flushing

There are many stories of the talented, courageous, and historically significant people of Queens, but none is quite as impressive and poignant as that of Lewis Howard Latimer. Latimer was an extraordinary individual possessing a multitude of talents, whose life coincided with the Civil War, the end of slavery and the industrial revolution. He not only actively participated in those events, he was activated by the opportunities they presented to him, a brilliant, hardworking, and ambitious but humble young African American. Latimer’s house, where he lived from 1903 to 1928, still stands in Flushing, and is open to the public as the Lewis H. Latimer House.

The story actually begins with his parents, George and Rebecca Latimer, who escaped slavery in 1842, journeying from Virginia to Massachusetts. When George’s owner showed up in Boston to reclaim his property, the organized abolitionist movement there rallied in full force, making the Latimer case the cause celebre of their mission, starting the Latimer Journal and North Star to keep the public abreast of the case and raising the money to purchase his freedom.

The case lead to a petition, signed by 65,000 citizens of the Commonwealth, insisting that a law should be passed forbidding the State of Massachusetts from detaining fugitives from slavery and that amendments to the Constitution of the United States be proposed by the legislature of Massachusetts to definitively separate the people of Massachusetts from all connection with slavery. The petition did result in such an act, effective for the State, but was ultimately unsuccessful at the Federal level.

Lewis was born with the now famous name of Latimer in Massachusetts in 1848. When the Civil War broke out, his older two brothers enlisted and so did he, serving in the Navy and teaching himself technical drawing. Upon his discharge, he worked for patent attorneys Crosby Halstead & Gould, first as an assistant, and later as a draftsman. When Alexander Graham Bell sought the firm’s services to patent his new invention, the telephone, it was Latimer who was entrusted to handle the complicated illustrations.

He next worked for Hiram Maxim at U. S. Electric Light Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut as an assistant manager and draftsman, eventually overseeing the installation of electric lights in major cities around the world.  It was here that he invented a new method of making carbon filaments for the electric incandescent lamp, a major breakthrough for a longer-lasting and more marketable product. This groundbreaking advancement caught the attention of Thomas Edison, a leader in the race to make electric lighting ubiquitous, having invented the central-station utility plant, an innovation that could extend service to groups of customers.

In 1884, Lewis went to work for Edison, and was one of the company’s prestigious 24 Edison Principles, the chief members of the engineering division. He co-authored a book on electricity called Incandescent Electric Lighting: A Practical Description of the Edison System. Given his background in the legalities of patents, he was instrumental in helping Edison navigate the constant patent challenges endemic of the growing electrical industry.

Driven by the desire to make life-improving inventions for all, he had other successful patents including the 1874 Water Closets for Railroad Cars, the 1886 Apparatus for Cooling and Disinfecting, the 1896 Locking Rack for Coats, Hats & Umbrellas, and the 1905 Book Supporter. Great minds are active along many tracts of seemingly unrelated talents.

Lewis Latimer wrote poetry and published a book of his verse – Poems on Love and Life. He painted portraits. He wrote and played music. He kept active correspondence with other leaders including Frederick Douglass, Bishop Theodore Holly Booker T. Washington, and Richard Theodore Greener. Having served in the Civil War, he was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and a founder of the Flushing Unitarian Church.

In 1903, he and his wife, Mary, purchased a house in a predominantly white neighborhood in Flushing, living there with their daughters, Emma and Louise. The Queen Anne style house was originally built for the Sexton family in 1887 and Latimer resided in it until his death in 1928. Originally on Holly Street, the Latimer home was strategically moved in 1988 to its current location at 34-14 137th Street abutting Leavits Park (GMAP) on State Park property, where it is administered by the City via the Historic House Trust and operated by the Lewis H. Latimer Fund.

Image courtesy of the Lewis H. Latimer House

When the house moved over from Holly Street, its external decorative details had been paired down considerably, but working with family photos, the Lewis H. Latimer Fund was able to restore it to its original state. To illuminate the Lewis H. Latimer story, on display here are full panels taking the visitor through his life and legacy, early lightbulbs, copies of Poems on Love and Life, family photos, and blown-up reproductions of drafts and patents. School children are hosted here for history tours and hands-on classes on science, invention, and art and design.

The House is open to the public between 1 and 5 pm on Wednesdays and Fridays. It is recommended that visitors call (718) 961-8585 in advance to make sure a volunteer is on site. Some one will return your call! Free parking on site.

Further reading:

Blueprint for Change: The Life and Times of Lewis H. Latimer, the site accompanying a 1995 exhibition based on the collection of Latimer papers in the Queens Borough Public Library

A book on the life and achievements of Lewis Latimer by his grandaughter, Winifred Latimer Norman, Lily Patterson and Nathan I. Huggins.