The Rapp Road Historical Association is mourning a key figure in keeping Albany history alive.
Former President and Rapp Road resident Beverly Bardequez died on July 2nd. She had led the association, formed in the early 2000's, for more than 11 years. Stephanie Woodard is the association's interim president. She says Bardequez will be remembered as a tireless advocate and dedicated champion for the historic district.
“Beverly’s passing for the association has left us with a big hole," said Woodard. "Our plan will be to continue the effort that she has laid out as well as her aunt Emma Dixon. To preserve the Rapp Road historical district, we will continue to work with all of our partners that both Emma and Beverly has established. And all the work that Beverly has been doing, since she had been the president of the Rapp Road Historical Association. We don't anticipate any changes, as maybe an interim president and the other officers, who are also interim that our due diligence will be based on the foundation that had been provided to us.”
Woodard says Dixon founded the association. When Dixon fell ill, Bardequez took over as president.
Speaking with WAMC in January 2019, Bardequez told how, in May 1939, her grandparents, their children, great-grandparents and a few cousins boarded a Greyhound bus in Hattiesburg, Mississippi bound for Albany's South End, part of "The Great Migration."
"They lived in a basement at 39 Duncan Avenue," Bardequez said. "And they lived there until the grandparents were able to find work. My grandmother found work as a domestic worker. My grandfather would get day work wherever he could because they didn't hire a lot of blacks at that time. He would go to the Port of Albany and various places for a day's work until he finally able to find a full-time job."
Bardequez says Wilborn Temple First Church of God in Christ and its pastor Reverend Louis Parson assisted the family. Parson and William Tolliver put their money together and bought 14 acres of land, what is now the Rapp Road community, from a farmer for $400. They offered migrants living in downtown Albany parcels of land. Bardequez's family moved to the site, and built their home.
“Some of them were not satisfied and weren’t comfortable with living in the South End," Bardequez said. "There were a lot of gambling, a lot of bars and brothels in the area at that time. And these were a church faith-based group, and it wasn’t conducive to where they wanted to raise their families. So some of them opted to move back to Mississippi. In an effort to keep his parishoners here because he was trying to grow his church, he decided he needed to find a place where they felt comfortable. The irony of it is that where they settled in the Pine Bush on Rapp Road, looked just like where they had come from in Mississippi.”
Between 1942 and 1963 they built dirt roads, 22 modest new houses and new lives.
In 2002 the Rapp Road district was listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places. For years the association has battled a planned development to build a 222-apartment residential complex on 20 acres near Rapp Road, arguing it will worsen an already difficult rush hour traffic flow. The Guilderland Planning Board is conducting a public hearing Wednesday night on a site plan amendment proposed for the development.
