C. Gannon to Charles W. Chesnutt, 19 May 1932
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THE UNION TRUST COMPANY1
MAIN OFFICE
CLEVELAND, OHIO
May 19 1932
Charles W. Chestnutt,
1646 Union Trust Building,
Cleveland, Ohio
We wish to advise you, that Fire Insurance policy, for $5,000 covering property at 11900-02 Superior Avenue will expire on June 4, 19322
The expiring policy was written by Cleveland Insurance Agency.3
We suggest that you arrange with your Insurance Agency for its renewal without delay, so that the new insurance policy will reach us on or before June 3, 1932
Should you desire further information, please communicate with this office.
Please give this your prompt attention, as it is essential that we have the renewal policy in our hands on or before the date above mentioned.
Very truly yours THE UNION TRUST COMPANY Mortgage Loan Department. By Miss C. Gannon FORM NO O-121B 6M 11-31Correspondent: Possibly Charlotte Clara Gannon Nolan (1905–?) from Cleveland, who married in 1934.
1. The Union Trust Company was the third-largest Cleveland bank trust, by 1920 a large nationwide bank following several mergers. In 1924, Chesnutt's company began renting offices in the brand-new Union Trust Building that housed the bank's headquarters. Many of his investments were also with Union Trust. After the stock market collapse in 1929, he had to service a $18,500 loan for which the collateral had been stock market shares that were now worthless; the company also held the mortgage for his home at 9719 Lamont St. and for at least one rental property he owned (11900–02 Superior Ave.). Union Trust survived the early years of the Depression, but was not allowed to reopen after another collapse of the Cleveland banks in February 1933. [back]
2. 11900 and 11902 Superior Ave. in Cleveland, Ohio, were a single building, which Chesnutt owned by the 1920s along with another rental property at 1267–1269 Lakeview Road (less than 400 feet away); the Union Trust Co. held the mortages. Superior Ave. is the main artery connecting the east and west sides of Cleveland's downtown; east of the city center it leads through a number of residential neighborhoods with storefronts along Superior. The area around 105th St., as Chesnutt noted, housed "quite a few" of the 75,000 African Americans that lived in the city by 1930 (see Chesnutt's essay The Negro in Cleveland"). Chesnutt's properties were about a mile (1.5 km or 15 blocks) east of 105th St.. [back]
3. The Cleveland Insurance Agency is listed in the Cleveland City Directories starting in 1905–1906, and was initially located at the Williamson Building, where Chesnutt also had his stenography offices between 1901 and 1924. [back]
