A Few Words About MYA
The Mitchell Young Anderson house sits in an African American historic community. The house may have been built in 1833. It is possible the house was originally used as a bordello. Over time the house was put up for sale. It appears that Emma Mitchell and her husband Sam Young purchased the house in 1909. It is possible that Emma was the daughter of Jim Mitchell, a young African American man who worked at the Esomething plantation for Charles somebody bought the house. Mitchell was known as the best trainer of hunting dogs. It is possible that his daughter was educated and that would explain why she was the person who signed the papers as the owner of the house (unusual for the time period as most business was conducted by men). The couple had a large family - six boys and four girls. He saved his money and bought the house. Sam Young was a carpentor and rennovated the large dance hall turning it into several additional bedrooms for his large family. Over the years, as the many children grew up and purchased or built their own homes, their son Charles took over the ownership of the house. By the 1940s, Young realized that there were few hotels for African Americans and he decided that the house would become a boarding house for traveling African American entertainers, railroad workers, etc.
During the 1950s, their daughter Virginia was living in the house with her husband Essic Anderson and their two daughters, Jule and Branda. Essic died and Virginia continued to live in the house. After many years of living in California, her daughter Jule returned to Thomasville, moved into the house with her mother and decided to turn the house into a Bed & Breakfast which she ran for a number of years. When Jule Anderson died in 2014, she asked in her Will that the house be transformed into a museum to promote the life style of the African American middle class.