Wilbur Clarence Gordon was a distinguished physician and real estate developer, born in Ironton, Ohio, on May 9, 1879. He was the son of John Calvin Gordon, originally from Virginia, and Arabelle Finley, who hailed from Ironton.
In 1903, Gordon earned a Bachelor of Science and a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C. Following his education, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he began his medical practice. At the time he was one of a small group of African American physicians serving a Black community that numbered fewer than 5,000 people. His practice was significant in providing healthcare to the local community and contributing to the advancement of medical knowledge in the region.
In 1925, Dr. Gordon embarked on building a major real estate development, Gordon Manor. This luxurious estate was located 15 miles west of Los Angeles’s Central Avenue district, the heart of the Black community. Gordon Manor was set on a 213-acre plot of land and designed to feature approximately 1,000 residential houses, a subdivision clubhouse, and a streetcar line connecting significant streets. Its prime location near the beaches of the Pacific Ocean promised to make it a luxurious retreat. The estimated cost of this housing development was over $7 million in the 1920s.
During this period, Gordon was also very active with Sigma Pi Phi, the first African American professional Greek-lettered fraternity founded in 1904 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On August 11, 1937, while serving as the Grand Sire Archon (President) of the fraternity, a post he held from 1933 to 1937, he wrote to the renowned African American sociologist and philosopher, William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) DuBois. In his letter, Gordon extended a significant invitation for DuBois, also a member of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, to attend the Fraternity’s Grand Boulé.
Over the years, Gordon Manor, a symbol of Dr. Gordon’s vision and ambition, fell into disrepair and was ultimately condemned through eminent domain by the Los Angeles Park System. Eventually Los Angeles County allocated the land, which had been a luxurious retreat for many African Americans from the 1920s to World War II, had by 1947 become El Camino Community College and the Alondra Park Golf Course. an entire 18-hole regulation course, for the city and county.
Dr. Wilbur Clarence Gordon, who dedicated his career to medicine and who founded a major housing development in the Los Angeles community, was married twice: first to Desdemona L. Valateen and later to Cynthiabelle Black. Dr. Gordon passed away in Los Angeles, California, on February 1, 1945, at the age of 66.
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