After the Civil War, the corner of Fifth Street and Second Avenue North was known as Gleed’s Corner. Robert Gleed, a former slave, owned a store there. During Reconstruction, he was a state senator for Lowndes County and is buried in the historic Sandfield Cemetery. Upstairs was the “Colored Masonic Temple”. The first African-American Bank, called “PennySavers”, was also located here. According to the cornerstone (located on the north side of the building), it was rebuilt in April 1940 after a massive fire had burned most of the north half of the city block.
