Constructed in three phases between 1962 and 1974, William H. Randall Estates represents the vision of African American developer Jube Shiver, Sr., who sought to establish a neighborhood in the Washington, D.C., suburbs for middle-class and professional Black families during the Jim Crow era, when African Americans were frequently excluded from residential communities through racially restrictive deed covenants and financial redlining. Laid out along wide, gently curving roads, the twenty-acre subdivision is comprised of fifty residential lots housing forty-nine single-family residences built primarily in the Ranch style with influences from the International Style and other Modern Movement trends. Many of the homes were designed by African American architect Joseph E. Johnson, Jr., to include custom features based on the requests of the owners. Shiver’s dedication to the project resulted in the successful development of a neighborhood of well-built homes available to African American families that remains a cohesive and varied collection of mid-20th century residential architecture. Significant parallels can be drawn between the William H. Randall Estates Historic District and the L&J Gardens Historic District in the City of Virginia Beach, which was listed in the historic registers in 2022.