Doris Braxton Epps
Mr. Frederick (Fred) D. Epps, Jr. and Mrs. Doris Braxton Epps, Family Portrait
Back row (left to right): Fred Epps, Jr., Mattie Cooke Braxton (Doris Epps' mother), Doris Epps (daughter of Fred and Doris Epps), Fannie P. Epps (Fred Epps, Jr.'s mother), and Doris Braxton Epps
Front row (left to right) Katherine Harper (neice of Fred and Doris Epps), Crystal Epps (daughter of Fred and Doris Epps), and Fredi Epps (daughter of Fred and Doris Epps)
Photo courtesy: Albert W. Durant Collection, Visual Resources, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Oral History
Mrs. Doris Braxton Epps describes her father, Robert Braxton, developing Braxton Court:
"[My dad] and another man, Mr. Johnson...they bought the property, but Dad owned most of it. And they divided it off in lots, and put a street, that's the street that's here now. When he built, his house was up at the end of it...And he would sell different ones lots because Colonial Williamsburg was buying out the people, and most of them lived on, Blacks lived on Duke of Gloucester Street...And he sold them for little or nothing, at that time, helping people so they could get started because they didn't have, some of them didn't have anyplace to go. And, well, at that time money wasn't that flourishing then. Colonial Williamsburg didn't give that much [to buy people out of their homes in the historic area]."
Interview with Mrs. Doris Braxton Epps | Conducted by Linda Rogers | August 4, 1986 | James City County Oral History Collection | Special Collections Research Center | William & Mary Libraries