Built in 1899, the Kayser Block was used as a hotel through World War I, often with black management. Used by the Colored Welfare League, it was the first home for the Dunbar Center (1923-26), which later evolved into the Ann Arbor Community Center on Main St. John Ragland, a 1938 UM law grad active in the NAACP, was a lawyer for the Colored Welfare League. He had his office on the second floor. For a time he was the only African American attorney in town. Washtenaw County's first black attorney was UM grad John Fox, who began practicing in Ypsilanti in 1878--the year the new Courthouse opened.