Screenshot of Ramona Gray-Harris, daughter of Sarah Edwards and niece of Millicent and Lucille Edwards. The three sisters began Edward Sisters Realty Affiliation (ESRA), now generally known as ESRA Realty LLC, in 1925.
Edward Sisters Realty Affiliation (ESRA), now generally known as ESRA Realty LLC, was began by sisters Lucille, Millicent, and Sarah Edwards. The sisters got here to the usA. from the Caribbean nation of Guyana in South America for higher life alternatives and settled in Harlem, NY.
They later established the true property enterprise at 740 St. Nicholas Ave., 2nd Ground, which is celebrating its one centesimal anniversary this yr.
Ramona Gray-Harris, the daughter of Sarah Edwards and niece of Millicent and Lucille Edwards, spoke with Caribbean Life about her journey of studying its early beginnings and historical past. One of many first issues she discovered was that her aunts, within the Nineteen Forties, purchased an 11,000-square-foot home in Hastings, on the Hudson River, which later grew to become the household home for all who got here to the U.S.
“We held onto the home till the Nineteen Sixties, once they moved to Westchester, and that grew to become the household home. I all the time knew about the home from my mom’s tales of how individuals on Strivers Row, the higher Black enclave in Harlem, had contests throughout Christmas,” Gray-Harris stated.
She added, “In the course of the Harlem Renaissance, Strivers grew to become generally known as an upper-middle-class Black group in Harlem, principally a socially upwardly cellular space. They’d beautify their balcony with Christmas decorations and see who was probably the most ‘stunning.’ From the census, I discovered the names of the relations who lived in the home.”
She additionally shared that the longevity of this Westchester home and the invention that her aunts bought and bought greater than 75 homes of their lifetimes helped affect their future determination to begin the enterprise in Harlem.
“They’d a enterprise on thirty fourth St. and sixth Ave. earlier than buying homes in Harlem. So, it appears like they operated two companies, the employment company and the true property enterprise,” she defined.
She then mentioned her curiosity in and expertise operating it. She stated she was all the time concerned about how her household had carried out so many issues and knew so many individuals since her aunt Lucille and her mom traveled to many locations, introduced again souvenirs, and despatched postcards from the locations that that they had visited.
“She made lots of contacts whereas touring, as individuals began to look to come back to America. She smoothed the way in which for lots of immigrants. As a younger little one, I’d ask questions, and as an grownup, I began the seek for data. That informational journey led me to find the beginning of the enterprise. I discovered a letterhead for the employment company, which was the primary enterprise that they began,” she added.
Gray-Harris entered the enterprise when she graduated faculty. Her brother and sisters every had a particular position within the enterprise: her older sister did gross sales, her brother managed properties that we owned, her sister was the lawyer, and he or she managed different buildings that they managed.
As well as, she stated it was wonderful to seek out out concerning the earlier employment company that existed earlier than the true property enterprise that her aunts ran.
Moreover, Gray-Harris mirrored on seeing her aunt cope with racism in operating the enterprise as a younger little one. On the influence this expertise had on how she runs it in the present day, Gray-Harris acknowledged, “I’d say it taught me the worth of reaching my objective. When confronted with racism, I’d attempt to discover one other strategy to obtain what I wanted to get carried out, particularly as a black girl in a person’s enterprise world.”
She then mentioned what it’s been wish to run the enterprise, within the midst of the current adjustments that the neighborhood has gone by means of, particularly with methadone facilities and shelters, following previous ones involving riots (the pissed off break on not being heard), sit-ins (a method of being seen in a racially discriminatory society), and medicines. However Gray-Harris stated the drug downside was by no means addressed till it affected white societies.
“It has been a wrestle to see individuals continuously attempting to dump methadone facilities within the Harlem zip codes when analysis has proven that methadone doesn’t work based on medical research, and that the general public coming to the facilities present that they don’t seem to be from these zip codes. It has been one other strategy to make Harlem a dumping floor to earn money, and now builders have discovered a brand new method in tearing down buildings to construct shelters for the migrants and now homeless individuals,” she acknowledged.
She additionally feels unhappy that we’ve got not give you methods to assist individuals in want, whether or not it’s psychological circumstances, medication, and even supportive help.
Realizing that she and her siblings all adopted of their aunts’ and mothers’ footsteps by going into actual property, preserving the household enterprise operating, and lengthening the household legacy, Gray-Harris stated, “I’m pleased with our longevity and flexibility, and now my two nephews are persevering with the household enterprise.”
Moreover, discussing the expansion of the enterprise, she says that below her management and now her nephews’ management, the enterprise is now centered on extra administration and improvement.
“As an entire, Harlem wants companies that perceive the group and may put out that serving to hand, not simply take the fee and don’t have any contact with the various organizations that make up our group. The enterprise contacts, the group, and political contacts make Harlem distinctive,” she says concerning the enterprise’s influence on the group.
Gray-Harris encourages youthful generations who could also be concerned about pursuing a profession in actual property: ” To not take no for a solution from anybody and proceed to observe their dream, regardless of how onerous it’s. I look again in any respect the enterprise and political leaders and see that their success was not all the time straightforward, and plenty of gave their lives to meet their desires.”
To have a good time the enterprise’s one centesimal anniversary, a black-and-gold gala will be held at The Alhambra Ballroom, situated at 2116 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd., on Friday, Nov. 14, from 6 to 9 p.m. The gala’s theme is “100 Years of Harlem.”
Tickets are $200 from Sept. 1 to Oct.31, and tickets for late registration are $250 after Oct.31. Those that are concerned about attending should purchase tickets right here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/esra-100th-anniversary-gala-tickets-1474730210759?aff=oddtdtcreator.
