by James D. Randall and Anna Evans Gilmer

John C. Norman, Architect

Located in the K of P Building for over forty-five years was the architectural office of the first Black licensed architect and structural engineer in West Virginia, Mr. John C. Norman.

Mr. Norman was born in Bloomfield, New Jersey, October 23, 1892. His early childhood was spent in Oxford, North Carolina. When he was quite young, his mother and father died. In spite of this loss, he was determined to “be somebody,” and on his own, attended the Mary Potter School in North Carolina where the esteemed Miss Lucy Laney was principal. She played an important part in his life by emphasizing moral values along with perfection in skills. He also attended the Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Something about Charleston must have immediately captured the imagination of former 1st Lt. John C. Norman, discarged from the U.S. Army following service with an engineering unit in France during World War I.

In 1918, Norman was making his way by rail to Pittsburgh to finish postgraduate studies in architecture and structural engineering when his train stopped in West Virginia’s capital city. Here, he would eventually meet his wife and start a family – and, as the state’s seventh licensed architect and its first licensed architect and structural engineer of African-American descent, he would design scores of residential, commercial and public works structures. Some of them are still part of the city’s urban landscape.

Rick Steelhammer | Charleston Gazette-Mail