Algonquin Tennis Club, 1954.

Photo Credit: Algonquin Tennis Club, 1954. Arthur Ashe is on the front row, 5th from the right..From "Durham's Hayti" by Andre Vann and Beverly Washington Jones.

The Legacy of African Americans and Tennis in the Triangle
The first African American tennis club in the Triangle started almost 100 years ago. It was located at 1308 Fayetteville Street , Durham NC. It was Built in 1925-1935 / Demolished in 1968.

"The Algonquin Club was evidently both a social club and a community center, primarily for the African-American 'elite' of Durham and Hayti. The club was organized in the 1920s.
("a social subsidiary of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company located nearby in the 1400 block of Fayetteville Street. It was recognized as southeast Durham’s most popular social and recreation spot of the 1930s and 1940s and its members were sometimes described as a new aristocracy".)

Jean Anderson first notes the existence of the Algonquin Club in 1935, as an organizational meeting was held on August 15, 1935 to form the Durham Committee on Negro Affairs (now known simply as the Durham Committee.) Anderson goes on to note that the club "later added food service and accommodated guests."

""The Algonquin Club voted to become a part of the Algonquin Tennis Club, which was the older organization and emphasized social growth as one of its primary objectives. It was the group that brought Althea Gibson at the height of her fame as a tennis champion and bragged of Arthur Ashe as one of the youngsters who played on their tennis courts - 'the bourgeois has arrived'."

The only pictures available seem to be those that picture a very young Arthur Ashe (would come down from Richmond) among groups of young boys with tennis rackets. Per Andre Vann, the Southern Tennis Association provided instruction, equipment, lodging and travel expenses for young tennis players."

"The club was adjacent to a 'Community Center' - I suspect that this was the forerunner to the W.D. Hill Recreation Center, but it has been difficult to determine whether the community center on the map below was city property or part of the Algonquin Club."
"Jean Anderson notes that the club was defunct by 1964, and later makes an offhand note about the "WD Hill Recreation Center reconstruction" in 1968. It appears that the original clubhouse was converted to the WD Hill Recreation Center, which burned in 1968. A new community center was built to replace the former club, also called the WD Hill Community Center."

Source:http://www.opendurham.org/buildings/algonquin-tennis-club

Source:https://books.google.com/books?id=beLPr2izNpQC&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=Algonquin+Tennis+Club,+1954.+From+%22Durham%27s+Hayti%22&source=bl&ots=m5CSKxbSes&sig=ubF1pwDSAzFP-M8HXML-s6c_dM8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwivz5nXt73fAhXnhOAKHVFuCrUQ6AEwB3oECAsQAQ#v=onepage&q=Algonquin%20Tennis%20Club%2C%201954.%20From%20%22Durham's%20Hayti%22&f=false