The Dennis family settled into the two-story home just down the street from the Wesleyan Methodist Colored Chapel (now Calvary Baptist Church) in a neighborhood that would welcome many black families over the decades (see Alex Haley Birthplace). Norman Dennis (1833-1908) was born in Tompkins County and worked as a porter, waiter, and mason. Helen Dennis’s (?-1893) origins are less clear: she is listed in various census records as being born in Ireland, England, or Ohio, and as either white or “mulatto” (mixed race). Census records consistently identify Norman and Helen’s three children—Charles, Louise (referred to as Luisa and later Lula), and Fred—as biracial.

“Anti-miscegenation” laws in many U.S. states banned marriages between blacks and whites, especially after the Civil War. (In fact, it wasn’t until the Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia in 1967 that anti-miscegenation laws were deemed unconstitutional and overturned in states where such laws remained on the books.) Although New York state had never made interracial marriage illegal, Norman and Helen’s union in the mid-1850s was uncommon for the time. (For example, historian Jane Dabel found that 5 to 7 percent of marriages in New York City’s predominantly African American neighborhoods between 1850 and 1870 were interracial.)

Evidence suggests that the Dennis family took part in the social and economic life of the various communities of which they were a part. In Elmira, where Norman spent the last years of his life, he was considered “highly respected” and had helped found an African American lodge of Odd Fellows. At the height of popularity in the late 1800s and early 1900s, such fraternal organizations and their women’s affiliates offered social and employment connections, life insurance and burial assistance, and aid for impoverished and elderly members.

The next generation of the Dennis family was also linked to African American access to fraternal support, ultimately making the Dennis home a site of national significance. Norman and Helen’s daughter Louise “Lula” Dennis Newton (1864-1929) inherited 421 North Albany after her mother’s death in 1893. Lula and her husband Edward M. Newton (?-1932) were active members and leaders of the St. James AME Zion Church. The Newtons valued education, taking spirited part in the adult education activities of the Zion Lyceum. Edward also had a connection to Cornell, working as a janitor, valet, and steward for the Psi Upsilon fraternity for more than five decades. Fraternities such as Psi Upsilon were dominant institutions on campus, providing social ties, educational support, and rooms for male students at a time when Cornell did not provide housing for male undergrads. Black Cornellians were excluded from these resources because they were denied fraternity membership.

In the face of such discriminatory practices, the small community of black students at Cornell—both men and women, who faced racial discrimination in access to women’s residences on campus—turned to Ithaca community members for lodging and social support. The Newtons rented out a room to College of Agriculture graduate student Charles C. Poindexter during the 1905-1906 school year. Poindexter hosted the first meeting of a black social study club at the Newton home. The group sought both social ties and academic support to excel at Cornell.

Club member George Kelley had been working at a fraternity while he was a student, and he and other black students drew inspiration from the fraternal model. “We had opportunity to watch the brotherly feeling displayed by these boys toward each other,” he recalled. “We had a chance to observe what such feelings had toward helping their fellows through difficult periods of study.” In December 1906 the social study group members voted to form their own fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, with the motto, “First of all, Servants of all, we shall transcend all.”

Alpha Phi Alpha chapters soon sprang up at other campuses, and the Cornell frat became the first Greek-letter, African American intercollegiate fraternity in the United States. The seven Cornellians who founded Alpha Phi Alpha are remembered as the “Jewels,” and Edward Newton is considered the “father” of the fraternity for his early support. Indeed, the organization acknowledges many members of Ithaca’s black community for hosting its early meetings.

Still going strong, the fraternity boasts hundreds of active chapters around the world that promote Alpha Phi Alpha’s mission of “developing leaders, promoting brotherhood, and encouraging academic excellence while providing advocacy and service to our communities.” Notable Alpha Phi Alpha brothers include sociologist W.E.B. DuBois, civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young.

The Alpha Phi Alpha organization considers the Dennis-Newton home at 421 N. Albany Street its birthplace. By 2012, however, the private residence, no longer owned by the Newton family, was unoccupied and had fallen into disrepair.

Alpha Phi Alpha’s Jewels Heritage Project and local preservation organization Historic Ithaca advocated for the home’s preservation. As a result, the City of Ithaca designated the home a local landmark in 2015, and the next year it was listed on the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places. In 2016 the Preservation League of New York State named it one of the threatened properties on its annual “Seven to Save” list. Its preservation is a tangible reminder of the site’s significance to local and national African American history.