A generational legacy of growing up Black in Chestnut Hill

by Kristin Holmes
Posted 2/23/23

Wesley Wilson worked his way up to Philadelphia from South Carolina, erecting telegraph poles along the route that would eventually lead to his family’s new home.

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A generational legacy of growing up Black in Chestnut Hill

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Wesley Wilson worked his way up to Philadelphia from South Carolina, erecting telegraph poles along the route that would eventually lead to his family’s new home – a converted stable in Chestnut Hill.

The building on the grounds of the Stevens School had been transformed into a residence long before the Wilsons moved in, but there was no mistaking what it had once been.

It is in that house, where the floors were made of cobblestones and the horizontally-split doors opened separately on the top and bottom, that Wesley and Emily Wilson carved out a home for children who would go on to fly helicopters, win tennis championships and design landscapes for celebrities. 

It was also the place where the Wilsons became respected members of the Chestnut Hill community in the 1930s, a time when few of their neighbors shared their African American heritage. 

Wesley Wilson was caretaker at the girls college preparatory school, which was the alma mater of Grace Kelly. He also founded what would become a successful landscaping business while living there, and later served as community air raid warden during World War II.

“My Dad, because of the way he carried himself, and his physique, people admired him – even if they couldn’t do it out loud,” said son William Wilson, of Chestnut Hill.

Looking back on their own personal family story, all three Wilson children – Wesley C., Emily Wilson Cumbo and William - say they can see how important it is that the role of African Americans in the community’s history be remembered and recorded. Because for them, and for the Mileses and the Mallories and the few other Black people who worked and lived on the Hill, Chestnut Hill was a complex place that offered both the opportunity that comes with a privileged neighborhood and the racial bias that was endemic within it.

“Chestnut Hill is a microcosm of the world,” William Wilson said.

His father, Wesley Wilson,  had set out for Pennsylvania from his home in Promised Land, S.C., during the Great Migration.  He worked on a crew erecting telephone poles along the way.

 “In a sense, he almost walked from South Carolina to Philadelphia,” William Wilson said.

With just a third grade education, Wesley Wilson taught himself to read. He met his future wife, Emily Campbell, at Grace Baptist Church of Germantown. She had grown up in Flourtown, and was part of one of the few Black families who lived in Springfield Township. 

The couple settled first in Germantown, where Wesley Wilson worked as a handyman and used his truck to haul coal. Sometime in the 1930s, he got the job at the former Stevens School, on the grounds of what is now Crefeld School.

 “He was the janitor, caretaker, bus driver, you name it,” son Wesley C. said.  Emily Wilson worked at the school part time, serving lunches.

As the community’s air raid warden, a civil defense leader for the neighborhood, Wesley was committed to the responsibility.

“He had his white helmet and mask and would go around the neighborhood making sure everyone was okay,” Wesley C. said.

The children attended Jenks and made friends among both their white and Black classmates, but there was virtually no socializing among families, Wesley C. said.  “I had all kinds of buddies in Chestnut Hill, but I was never invited to their house,” he said.

 “We had an integrated school, integrated movie theater, but there was this sense that you knew your place,” Wesley C. said. “Our parents, especially Dad, taught us to be cautious. They kept us apprised of the world we were living in.”

In one incident, Wesley C. believes he likely was denied a chance to run in the Penn Relays because three of the runners on the relay team were Black. He and friends Rudy Miles, and Robert Mallory – all Black students at Jenks – had the fastest times and qualified for the relay team, but mysteriously, the opportunity to run in Philadelphia’ premier track event disappeared. 

But Wesley Wilson and his wife made sure their children benefited from the opportunities that came with the privileged place where they lived.

Daughter Emily played tennis on the Stevens courts after school was dismissed for the day. By the time she was 18 years old, she had become the national champion of the American Tennis Association. William, who reveled in the green landscape of his surroundings, grew up to become a landscape architect, founding the Philadelphia-based firm Synterra Ltd. and later serving as chair of the city’s Art Commission. Wesley C., who was introduced to flying planes as a youngster through his father’s assignment to the civil air patrol, grew up to fly helicopters for the military during two tours in Vietnam. He then went on to earn his doctorate in education from the College of William and Mary.

Eventually, the family left Chestnut Hill for East Mt. Airy. Wesley Wilson, who had a landscaping business in addition to his duties at Stevens, wanted to expand that enterprise, but his employer said no, and also attempted to increase his work hours. So, in 1952, Wesley left the job and moved to Germantown in order to grow his landscaping business. And he did just that, with William Wilson following in his footsteps.

And 31 years ago, William Wilson moved back to Chestnut Hill – as an entrepreneur who was successful enough to design and build his own home.

“I wanted a place where I could feel like I was in the country, but I was only minutes away from the city, “ William Wilson said. A Black architect with his landscaping company designed the house.

But he eventually was reminded that Chestnut Hill is not nirvana. Not too long ago, when an intoxicated man, who was white, stumbled onto their walkway, William Wilson’s wife Barbara called the police to remove the man. When police arrived, William Wilson said,  “they grabbed me” instead of the drunk man.

Still, the Wilsons say they realize that growing up in Chestnut Hill gave them advantages that other children didn’t have. And the impact on their lives has reverberated across the generations. 

“But it wasn’t because the white people in Chestnut Hill [gave us access],” Emily Wilson Cumbo said. “It was because our parents made sure that we had the opportunity.”