Reno City Chesapeake and 40th Streets nw
before the civil war (1861-65), this land was part of Giles Dyer’s 72-acre farm. As a Southerner, Dyer depended on enslaved people to work his fields. Because of its elevation, Dyer’s land was taken by the Union Army in 1861 for a fort and observation post. After the war, the Dyer family recovered the property, then sold it to developers. Soon “Reno City” lots sold for $25, with $5 down. Frederick “Fritz” Bangerter, a young Swiss immigrant, bought several lots to establish a dairy farm, raise a family, and build houses to rent. African Americans who had sought safety and work at Fort Reno during the Civil War also bought lots or rented Reno City houses, as did other whites and free blacks. Many worked nearby as laborers and domestics. By 1900 Reno City was 75 percent African American with three black churches, a black Masonic lodge, and a black school. In 1902 the U.S. Senate Park Commission sug- gested preserving the city’s historic ring of Civil War forts, including Reno, as parks. The plan was shelved, but as land around Reno filled in with new housing for whites, federal planners again eyed Reno City as a good spot to create a park, schools, and reservoirs. Doing so would also satisfy those desiring to remove the aging enclave where black and white families lived side by side. Thus, between 1928 and the early 1950s, the federal government bought or condemned Reno City houses and razed them, dispersing the 80-year-old community and its institutions.
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