Built for Ephraim G. Ponder, a slave trader, this house originally featured a square cupola at the center of the roof. At the time he built this house, Ponder enslaved the Flipper family and, according to the National Park Service: [one of their children], Henry Ossian Flipper (1856-1940), was born enslaved on March 21, 1856, in Thomasville, Georgia, to Festus and Isabella Flipper. [This suggests that Henry was born on these grounds and lived here until the family moved to Atlanta]. Festus Flipper was a shoemaker and carriage trimmer. Flipper’s parents were enslaved by different men when his father’s enslaver decided to move to Atlanta. Henry’s father used all his savings to successfully petition his enslaver to buy his son and wife so the three could remain together. 

After the Civil War, the Flipper family stayed in Atlanta, where Festus set up a shoemaking shop. Education was important to the Flipper family. Henry attended schools for Black students established by the American Missionary Association, a nondenominational group of Christian abolitionists. He attended Atlanta University, an all-Black school also founded by the American Missionary Association, before taking the entrance exam for West Point.

Flipper was the first black cadet to be admitted to the United States Military Academy at West Point, in 1877.

He earned a commission as a second lieutenant in the U. S. Army. He was also the first black officer to lead the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry. He went on to serve in the Apache Wars and Victorio’s War but was troubled by rumors that led to his eventual court martial and discharge. He continued to work for the United States, as an assistant to the Secretary of the Interior in Mexico and Central America. Flipper’s family sought and received a complete pardon in 1999. It’s a nice irony that the slave trader is largely forgotten today while Mr. Flipper is honored with an annual award in his name at West Point.

Dawson Street Residential Historic District, National Register of Historic Places