- Location
- 302 W. Romana Street
- Years
- 1901 - 2016
- Now
- Girard Place townhouses
Born in 1838 to an enslaved woman and white farmer who lived openly as a married couple, John Sunday had a remarkable life. He enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War, serving with the Corps d’Afrique in Louisiana where he reached the rank of First Sergeant.
He returned to Pensacola after the war with his wife Seraphine and helped reconstruct the city—literally—while also serving in the state legislature and as a city councilman. After years of building houses for others, John Sunday built his own two-story home at 302 W. Romana Street in 1901 in the Tanyard neighborhood. He died in 1925, and family members lost ownership of the house.
Much of the Tanyard neighborhood was razed in the 1960s and 70s for the Governmental Center District. The Sunday house endured until 2016, when owner Charles Liberis tore down the building over the objections of preservationists and the city’s own Architectural Review Board. The Girard Place townhouses now occupy the site.
