Group seeks to preserve Hughes home in Cleveland

CLEVELAND -- A boyhood home of writer Langston Hughes has been purchased after foreclosure by a nonprofit community development group in Cleveland that seeks to preserve it.

The Fairfax Renaissance Development Corp. says options include renovating it into a residence or restoring it to create a Hughes museum.

Hughes was born in Joplin, Mo., and lived in Lincoln, Ill., before moving into the Cleveland house as a teenager around 1917.

The 2 1/2-story, wood-frame house on the city's east side was sold at a sheriff's auction in February for $16,667. It was transferred to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which sold it to the group for $100.

The Academy of American Poets says Hughes' novels, plays and poems displayed insightful portrayals of black life in America. He died in 1967 in New York City.