I came across a compelling story about Biddy Mason that got me thinking about the roots of California real estate and how property ownership shaped our entire region. According to CalMatters Housing, the L.A. City Council recently voted to rename Pershing Square in honor of Mason, a woman who went from enslaved labor to becoming a major property developer in 19th-century Los Angeles. The piece was written by Kevin Waite, a history professor who authored the first scholarly biography of Mason, and it really underscores something I don't think gets discussed enough in real estate circles.
Mason's journey is remarkable. She was born enslaved in Georgia back in 1818 and walked roughly three thousand miles across the country, eventually ending up in San Bernardino, California, where she continued laboring in bondage despite the state's constitutional ban on slavery. What changed for her was a court case in 1856 where a judge declared her, her three daughters, and ten other women and children free. This was the largest legal emancipation in the American West at that time.
After gaining her freedom, Mason worked her way up from domestic service and eventually became a nurse and midwife, which gave her a foothold in the community. She took her earnings and started buying property in Los Angeles, particularly around Spring Street. When buildings she constructed burned down, she rebuilt and developed what became known as the Mason Block, turning it into one of the city's most desirable commercial properties. Waite notes that Mason essentially became a nineteenth-century multi-millionaire through real estate savvy.
What strikes me most is what Mason did with her wealth. She didn't just accumulate property for personal gain. She co-founded the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles in 1869, financed the first Black school in the city, and opened her properties to Chinese businesses when other landlords were refusing to rent to Asian tenants. She also provided medical care to Indigenous workers and helped flood victims regardless of their background. According to Waite's research, her philanthropic efforts contributed to Los Angeles having the highest proportion of Black homeowners of any American city by the early twentieth century.
The story points out that despite all of this, Mason was largely forgotten for over a century. There's an eighty-two-foot concrete memorial wall at her former Spring Street homestead, but it sits mostly unnoticed. The renaming of Pershing Square to Biddy Mason Park should help bring visibility to her contributions and the geography of early Black Los Angeles that she literally built.
What I am seeing locally in the Bay Area and East Bay is a growing interest in understanding the people behind our neighborhoods and how communities were actually developed. Mason's story reminds us that real estate wealth isn't just about transactions and appreciation rates. The real legacy comes from how property owners use their success to strengthen their communities and open doors for those coming after them. It's a lesson worth remembering as we build the Bay Area's future.
