Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: Side One: In 1947, Willie and Carrie Pittman purchased this lot at 1447 South Bronough Street from Fred and Clara Carrol for the price of $10. Soon after, the Pittmans built a two-story, 13-room, wood-frame house on the property. The house served as a temporary home for scores of female African American students unable to attain dormitory rooms at Florida A&M College (University). Students occupied the seven bedrooms on the upper level of the house, while Pittman, his wife, and their children occupied the six bedrooms on the lower level. From the late 1940s to the late 1960s, the house was known by the college community and area residents as the "Pittman Boarding House." Mere steps away from FAMC/FAMU, the home was a symbol of ingenuity, creative economics, pride, and prosperity to area residents. It was one of over 50 businesses owned and operated by African Americans in the once bustling neighborhood called “Allen Subdivision." The house was the childhood home of Florida’s first female African American State Senator, Carrie Pittman Meek, the youngest of the Pittmans' twelve children. Meek attributed much of her success to her parents' determination to send her to college and ensure a better life for all their children. Side Two: Willie Pittman's mother was born a slave and lived for over 100 years. In 1908, Pittman married Carrie Tansy Green in Lilly, Georgia. They rented a three-bedroom farmhouse in Lilly, near the fields where Pittman worked as a sharecropper. By 1914, the couple had moved to Tallahassee. Due to Jim Crow era prejudice, they experienced racial discrimination and financial difficulty. Following construction of their home in the late 1940s, Willie maintained properties for Fred Carrol. Carrie managed the boarding house. Known locally as "Mama Carrie" or "Big Mama," she made all of her children's clothes, and ran a home laundry for white families. With Willie and her children, Carrie maintained a vegetable garden and raised chickens on the property. The children also kept the front dirt yard swept and clean. Carrie sold cakes and preserved fruits and vegetables from the family garden. Carrie was a devout congregant of the Philadelphia Primitive Baptist Church, and often fed the hungry nearby. In 1955, Willie died in a car accident in Tallahassee, and Carrie died in 1966 in Miami. The Pittmans’ determination to ensure a better future for their children, their collective skills and ingenuity was noteworthy.