Dr. Charles W. and Vivian L Williams House
(ca. 1963)
The prominent civil rights and civic advocate Dr. Charles W. Williams lived in this well-preserved mid-century split-level ranch home.
5906 Crestwood Dr, Charlotte, NC 28216
The Williams House was the home of Dr. Charles Warren Williams (1925-1982) and his wife Vivian Lewie Williams (1923-2006). Among his many accomplishments, Dr. Williams integrated Charlotte Memorial Hospital and led efforts to establish the community health center that bears his name. He partnered in several Black-focused developments, including the East Independence Plaza office tower, then the Southeast’s largest Black-developed building. Together, he and Mrs. Williams – an educator in Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools – were instrumental in the design and development of Hyde Park Estates, a suburban upper-middle class neighborhood for Black professionals. The Williams House was one of the first houses constructed in Hyde Park Estates.
Property Quick Links
Born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, Charles attended Fisk University and Meharry Medical College, both in Nashville, Tennessee. There he met Vivian, then an assistant professor at Tennessee State A&T University. A naftive of Columbia, South Carolina, she graduated from Allen University, later earning a Master of Arts degree in psychology from University of Michigan. Following their 1947 marriage, Dr. Williams was drafted for service in the Korean War. His 19-month military stint included service as acting chief of surgery at the 21st Evacuation Hospital in Busan, South Korea. Upon his return, the couple moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where Dr. Williams completed a residency in general surgery. In 1954, having had two children, the family moved to Charlotte.
Initially permitted only to treat patients in Charlotte’s Good Samaritan Hospital – the first privately owned Black hospital in North Carolina – Dr. Williams sought access to the better treatment facilities of the city’s segregated White hospitals for his patients. Despite several race-based obstacles, he became one of the first four Black members of the North Carolina Medical Society in 1961, and in 1962 the first Black doctor granted medical privileges at Charlotte Memorial Hospital, paving the way for the many Black medical professionals that followed.
Meanwhile, as Charlotte’s residential neighborhoods also remained predominately segregated, Charles and Vivian began work on what would become Charlotte’s last community developed by and for African American residents during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Vivian named their new development and many of its streets. She was also instrumental in crafting the neighborhood covenants and deed restrictions for Hyde Park Estates. Charles also chaired the board of community members that in 1981 opened the Metrolina Comprehensive Health Care Center to address the chronic shortage of healthcare access for Black Charlotteans. In recognition of his leadership, the facility was renamed in his memory upon his death in 1982.
Charles and Vivian divorced in 1968. She moved to California where she taught psychology and worked as a counselor at Compton Community College until retiring in 2003. Charles remarried in 1972 to educator Vivian Lyons (1937-2022). A native of St. Louis, Missouri, she was a graduate of Harris Stowe Teachers College in St. Louis and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. They had two sons. After Dr. Williams’ death, she owned the house until 2002.