Black History

Charles Street Meeting House // 1807

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The Charles Street Meeting House at the corner of Charles and Mount Vernon streets in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood is one of the finest examples of a Federal period meeting house in New England. The building is thought to have been designed by architect, Asher Benjamin, due to its similarities to his Old West Church on Cambridge Street built a year prior. At the time of construction in 1807, the church stood near the banks of the Charles River, but is now a distance away from the Charles following a land-filling campaign to expand buildable land in the city. The Charles Street Meeting House consists of a two-story gable-roof main structure with a three-story tower on the south (primary) elevation that supports a clock tower and wooden cupola with double Ionic pilasters supporting the domed roof. The building was constructed for the Third Baptist Church congregation, who used the nearby Charles River for baptisms. In the years before the American Civil War, it was a stronghold of the anti-slavery movement, and was the site of notable speeches from such anti-slavery activists as Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Harriet Tubman and others. The Baptists sold the structure to the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1876, which was part of the first Black independent denomination in the United States. The AME Church sold the building in 1939 to the Charles Street Meeting House Society, and after a period of use as an Albanian Orthodox church, it was sold to the organization that is now, Historic New England, who were required to keep restrictions to preserve the building’s exterior. It served as a Universalist church from 1949 to 1979 with rented space inside to tenants, including a LGBT newsletter, Gay Community News, which was founded in the building in 1973. In 1980 the Meeting House was purchased by the Charles Street Meeting House Associates, who worked with the architectural firm of John Sharrat Associates to restore the building and adaptively reuse it into four floors of offices, with retail on the ground floor.

Charles P. Ware House // 1894

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The Charles P. Ware House at 52 Allerton Street in Brookline, shows us that a house doesn’t have to be a mansion to make a statement! Built in 1894 from plans by architect, Henry Forbes Bigelow, this charming Colonial Revival cottage is notable for its brick construction with gambrel roof and brick endwalls rising as parapets. The home was built for Charles Pickard Ware (1840-1921) and wife, Elizabeth Lawrence (Appleton) Ware, who lived here until their deaths. Charles P. Ware was an educator, music transcriber, and abolitionist, who served as a civilian administrator in the Union Army, where he was a labor superintendent of freedmen on plantations at Port Royal, South Carolina during the Civil War. At one of the freedmen plantations, Seaside Plantation, Ware transcribed many slave songs with music and lyrics, publishing many in Slave Songs of the United States, which was the first published collection of American folk music. After Charles and Elizabeth Ware died in 1921 and 1926, respectively, the property was inherited by their son, Henry Ware, who was an attorney.

Russell-Hayes House // 1899

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The Russell-Hayes House at 58 Allerton Street in Brookline, Massachusetts, was built in 1899 in the highly popular Colonial Revival style for Mr. and Mrs. Russell. Francis Henry Russell (1832-1919) was born in Plymouth and married Elizabeth Stevens (1835-1922) of Lawrence, and had one daughter together. Francis attended Harvard College and eventually worked as the Treasurer of the Bates Manufacturing Company, doing well enough to purchase a house lot in the fashionable “Pill Hill” neighborhood of Brookline to build his home here. Mr. Russell hired Plymouth-born architect, Joseph Everett Chandler, to design his suburban residence for himself, his wife, and daughter. After the death’s of Francis (1919), Elizabeth (1922) and their unmarried daughter, Mary (1926), the property was purchased in 1927 by African American musician, Roland Hayes. Just years prior to purchasing this stately home in Brookline, Roland Hayes performed abroad in Europe, even a private performance for King George V and Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace. He returned to the United States of America in 1923 and made his official debut on November 16, 1923, in Boston’s Symphony Hall, which received critical acclaim. He was the first African-American soloist to appear with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, who would later hire him, with a reported salary of $100,000 a year. Roland and his family lived in this house for 50 years until his death in 1977. His legacy lives on here with a plaque in front of the home, and a public school named after him.

South Meeting House, Portsmouth // 1866

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The South Meeting House was built in Portsmouth in 1866 and it is significant as a high-style Italianate building in the coastal town, and as the meeting place for the first African American church congregation in New Hampshire. The present building is the second building on this site. The initial structure was the Old South Meeting House, which was built for the South Church in 1731. The City demolished it in 1863 for the construction of the present building in 1866 as a Ward Hall for the Southern area of the community. The building’s upper level serves as a large public meeting space, and has seen use for political meetings, ward elections, and religious services The structure was the home of the People’s Baptist Church, the first African American church in New Hampshire, which organized in 1873, when the Freewill Baptists congregated on the second floor of this building. The church relocated in 1915 to 45 Pearl Street when the congregation raised money and bought their own building. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, the building continued to serve as a church, school, and community center until at least 1915. After World War II, it was boarded up due to economic circumstances and endured a period of neglect. In 1966, Strawbery Banke leased the building from the city for about fifteen years, during which it returned as a community resource and was renamed the South Meeting House. The city invested around $67,000 for repair work that also exposed further damage issues. In 1982, the city approved a proposal for the building to become a Children’s Museum. The community contributed to the required materials and labor that allowed the Museum to welcome the public from 1983-2008. Today, the city is still permitting restoration projects to preserve the historic building.

Prudence Crandall’s School for Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color // c.1805

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Built c.1805 for Elisha Payne, this architecturally distinguished Federal style mansion in Canturbury, Connecticut is one of the most significant buildings in the state, not only for its architecture but historical significance. In 1831, a young white woman, Prudence Crandall, was asked to open a boarding school for girls in Canterbury. She purchased this mansion and began operations for the school, which was attended by many wealthy girls in town. In 1832, Ms. Crandall was approached by a young Black girl who worked as a servant in town, named Sarah Harris, asking to attend the school. Encouraged by conversations with both Harris and Maria Davis, a Black woman who worked for Crandall and shared copies of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator with her, Crandall agreed to admit Harris. Almost immediately, residents protested the school’s admission of a Black girl and parents threatened to withdraw their students, Crandall undeterred, closed her school and reopened in 1833, solely for Black and Brown students. Young girls traveled from several states to attend the school. The legislature of Connecticut responded by passing the “Black Law,” which prevented out-of-state Black and Brown people from attending school in Connecticut towns without local town approval. Crandall was arrested, spent one night in jail, and faced three court trials before the case was dismissed. In September 1834, a nighttime mob of men attacked the house, smashing the windows, leading Crandall to close the school out of fear for her students as no protections were afforded to them. These events made national and international news in the 1830s and galvanized the burgeoning abolitionist movement. Crandall would later marry and left Connecticut, never to return. For her vision and brave actions at this school, Prudence Crandall is Connecticut’s official state heroine and the house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991.

Alexander Twilight House // c.1830

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The highlight of the town of Brownington, Vermont is the Old Stone House Museum & Historic Village, a collection of amazing 19th century architecture set amongst the rolling hills of the Northeast Kingdom. One of the buildings in the village is this structure, the Alexander Twilight House. Alexander Twilight (1795–1857) was born in Corinth, Vermont, on September 23, 1795. He was raised by a fair-skinned mother, Mary Twilight, and a mixed-race father, Ichabod Twilight. Twilight entered Middlebury College in 1821 and graduated in 1823, possibly making him as the first person of color to graduate from an American college. Alexander Twilight accepted the call and moved to Brownington to serve as the town’s reverend.  He also served as headmaster of the Orleans County Grammar School.  To meet growing enrollment needs, he designed, raised funds for, and built the first granite public building in Vermont, Athenian Hall, which contained classrooms and a dormitory. He had this Federal style house built in the village, large enough to house some students in his home. Before building his Federal style home, he lived in a much smaller, vernacular home, which was added onto the rear of this home as an ell (later separated by the museum). Elected to the Vermont General Assembly in 1836, Twilight became the first African American to serve in a state legislature in the United States. In 1847, after conflicts with the Orleans County school administrators, Twilight moved to Quebec, Canada for five years, but then returned to serve as headmaster in Brownington.  He died on June 19, 1857 and is buried in the Brownington churchyard. 

Original Twilight House

Pinderhughes House // c.1916

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As much of the streets north of Franklin Park were developed in the early 20th century, a mix of middle-class apartment buildings and stately single-family homes began to sprout up. Boston contractor Hugh Nawn hired architect Julius Adolphe Schweinfurth to design this house, seemingly on spec, as an income-producing venture. Schweinfurth was employed by the architectural firm of Peabody and Stearns and worked as chief designer there until 1895, when he opened his own practice. His design for Mr. Nawn was this stately Colonial Revival style mansion, similar to Nawn’s own home just across the street, which overlooked Franklin Park. After WWII, Roxbury’s population saw an increase in Black residents, who began to be pushed out of the South End due to increased cost of living. This home was purchased by Dr. Charles A. Pinderhughes (1919-1998), Chief of Psychiatry at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in West Roxbury who also taught at Boston University, Tufts, and Harvard. He was engaged in the local chapter of the NAACP and advocated for African American residents when Urban Renewal began to destroy much of the surrounding neighborhood by the Mayor and Boston Redevelopment Authority. The Pinderhughes House is a well-preserved architectural landmark that also has ties to a more recent and overlooked history of the neighborhood. I hope this house stays like this forever!

Congdon Street Baptist Church // 1875

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The Congdon Street Baptist Church on College Hill is extremely significant as part of the rich history of Providence. Its origins began in 1819, when Moses Brown, an abolitionist, industrialist and member of the Brown Family (who profited on the institution of slavery) gave land to “the people of color” of Providence for a schoolhouse and meeting house. The original building stood slightly north of the present structure and it was built in 1821. The structure provided the first schoolhouse for Black children in Providence. In 1869 the building was torn down, without the approval or knowledge of the congregation by white neighbors because “its proximity displeased them”… Eventually the congregation arranged an exchange of lots with one of the church’s neighbors and architects Hartshorn & Wilcox were commissioned to design the new church building. Hartshorn was the successor of Thomas A. Tefft and this church echoes many of his designs in the Italianate style. The new building was completed in 1875 at the cost of $16,000. It was renamed the Congdon Street Baptist Church. The church has since 1875 served as an important landmark and gathering place for many Providence’s Black residents past and present.

League of Women for Community Service Building // c.1860

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Just a block away from the Women’s Service Club Building (last post) on Mass. Ave in Boston, you’ll find this landmark, with both architectural and cultural significance. The townhouse (along with the house next door) was built around 1860 for William and Martha Carnes. William Rice Carnes was a fine lumber importer and furniture maker, bringing in high-quality mahogany and rosewood to Boston, aligning with the Victorian era housing and furniture boom here, he made a lot of money. Inside his home, he showcased the quality and durability of his product, much of which remains today. It is believed that the house was a stop on the Underground Railroad, with the connected basements of the two houses (#558 and #560) providing an easier escape in the event of a slave-catcher coming by. After William died, the property eventually sold to Nathaniel W. Farwell of Maine on October 29, 1868. The Farwell family occupied the house only until 1910, and as evidence of the decline of the South End, it stood empty until 1920 when it was sold to the League of Women for Community Service, a pioneering Black women’s organization. The League emerged from the ‘30s and ‘40s and as late as the 1950s as a safe place and a popular gathering place for African Americans in Boston. Many hotels at the time were not willing to accommodate Black patrons or charged so much that events there were unattainable. Coretta Scott King lived in the home while she attended college at the New England Conservatory and honed her amazing singing skills. It is at the home that she and Martin Luther King Jr. – then a student at Boston University – likely had dates and began their courtship. The LWCS has recently received funding through grants to preserve and restore the landmark to her former glory.

Women’s Service Club of Boston // c.1860

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This historic rowhouse in the South End of Boston was home to the Women’s Service Club, a social and volunteer organization made up of Black women to uplift Black Bostonians of varied backgrounds, including soldiers, students, migrants and mothers. “464,” as some locals admiringly called it, was formed in the early 20th century as Boston. The city, once known as “Freedom’s Birthplace” and the “Athens of America” as a hub of abolitionist activity leading up to the Civil War, saw extreme segregation in housing and education for its Black residents by the early 20th century. From this, local activist Mary Evans Wilson organized a knitting group in 1917 to support soldiers of color fighting in World War I. An estimated 350 women joined the group, donating their talents to produce scarves and gloves for servicemen. Humanitarianism guided the activity of the Women’s Service Club’s over the next half century. This building was purchased in 1919 and operated as part-meeting space and part-settlement house. “A Home Away from Home,” as some described it, the building offered affordable shelter to female workers, migrants, and college students barred from on-campus housing due to racist policies. One of the club’s most prominent members was Melnea Cass (1896–1978), who served as its President for more than fifteen years. Cass initiated the Homemakers Training Program which certified domestic workers so they would be assured a liveable minimum wage, social security and other benefits. The club continues to do great work, but could use funding to restore the landmark building!

Johnson’s School of Beauty Culture // c.1865

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Boston’s South End neighborhood has so much history that NEEDS to be showcased. From the repetitive architecture of beautiful brick and stone bowfronts, to the history of African American activism, enterprise, and stories, the neighborhood is a gem of Boston. This building was constructed around 1865 for Thomas H. Snow (1833-1908) as his home. Snow was a wine and spirit merchant who had a store in Faneuil Hall Square. While that is interesting, Mr. Snow is not the highlight of this building, that comes later in 1899, when the building was rented to Madame Mary L. Johnson, a wig maker, scientific scalp specialist, and hair culturist. Mary Johnson and her husband, Dr. W. Alexander Johnson, were Black and ran one of just 200 Black-owned businesses in the city of Boston by the beginning of the 20th century. At their storefront, they sold hair goods at Johnson’s Hair Store. Sold all over the United States since 1900, their famous “Johnson Hair Food” was “the most scientific pomade yet discovered for growing, beautifying and softening the hair,” they claimed. In connection with their hair product outfit, Madame Johnson operated Johnson’s School of Beauty Culture, where a variety of services including manicuring, shampooing, scalp massage, facial massage, hairdressing, and scalp treatment were offered. The school provided young Black women in Boston technical training and skills, which there were limited options at the time. Mr. Johnson also was President of the Boston Negro Business League, which helped bolster Black businesses at the turn of the century.

Columbus Avenue A.M.E. Zion Church // 1885

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The Columbus Avenue African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church sits on the border of the South End and Lower Roxbury neighborhoods and is a great example of how the area evolved in the 19th and 20th centuries. The beautiful Romanesque Revival building was constructed in 1885 as the first synagogue of Congregation Adath Israel, which was founded in 1854. The congregation sought more space from its current location, and a closer place of worship for many of the German Jews who settled in Boston’s South End. They built this synagogue in 1885 and eventually moved west to a new Kenmore Square synagogue less than thirty years later as the neighborhood’s demographics began to shift. In 1903, the A.M.E. Zion Church purchased the former synagogue as their new home. This congregation had its beginnings in 1838 when seventeen African Americans withdrew from the communion of the Methodist Episcopal Church, then located on Joy Street in Beacon Hill. This group of Black worshippers wanted more religious freedom and desired to become part parcel of The African Methodist Episcopal Zion connection under the leadership of their own race. For many years, this church was the largest and principal Black church in the city of Boston. In 1903, shortly after moving to Columbus Avenue, the church experienced what was called the “Boston Riot.” The church hosted a debate between Booker T. Washington and William Monroe Trotter, editor and publisher of the “Boston Guardian”. Trotter, a Black Bostonian, opposed the gradual conservative approach to civil and political rights as promulgated by Mr. Washington. The debate took place on July 3, 1903 and the church was packed with over 2,000 spectators. Shortly after the opening prayer by Pastor McMullen of the AME Church, Washington was introduced. A disturbance then erupted with Trotter eventually being arrested for disturbing the peace. This building is the oldest synagogue building in Massachusetts and has been a center of Black life in Boston ever since the beginning of the 20th century.

Robert Gould Shaw Memorial // 1897

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Commissioned from the celebrated American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens in the early 1880s and dedicated in 1897, The Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial (aka the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial) has been acclaimed as the greatest American sculpture of the 19th century. The memorial was designed by famed artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and it is a stop on the Boston Black Heritage Trail, commemorating the valiant efforts of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the men of the 54th Massachusetts, one of the first Civil War regiments of African Americans enlisted in the North. In July 1863, the regiment was sent to South Carolina where an assault was planned on Fort Wagner guarding Charleston harbor. Shaw had asked to have 54th Regiment lead the attack. Of the 600 men in the attack that day, there were 285 casualties, and Col. Shaw was killed, but the men never wavered in the battle and demonstrated great courage and determination. Following this display of valor, other black regiments were formed, and by the end of the war, 10% of the union army was made up of African American soldiers.

The monument in Boston shows the 25-year-old Shaw seated on his horse, with his regiment as it marched down Beacon Street on May 28, 1863 to depart the city to fight in the South. The concept of Shaw on horseback with marching soldiers was inspired, at least in part, from a painting Saint-Gaudens saw in France, Campagne de France 1814, by Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier, which depicts Napoleon on horseback with rows of infantry in the background.While Shaw is the centerpiece of the monument, the significance of the monument is the Shaw Memorial is the first civic monument to pay homage to the heroism of African American soldiers in the U.S.

Alexander Jack Jr. House // 1811

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Newport in 1774 had approximately 153 free Black residents residing in 46 households comprising of thirty-percent of Newport’s population at this time. One of these free Black families was the Jack family who resided around Levin Street (Memorial Boulevard today). The Jack Family appears to have been from Antigua and may have had ties to the Redwood Family (the namesake of the Redwood Library), who owned a plantation on the island and resided in Newport. Alexander Jack, Jr. was a free African American whose trade was a cordwainer or shoemaker. He bought his land in 1811 and is thought to have begun construction almost immediately. Jack heirs remained on this property until 1881. The Newport Restoration Foundation purchased the house in 1969, moved it that same year to Mill Street to save it from urban renewal and the widening of Levin Street as Memorial Blvd.

Glapion-Middleton House Ell // c.1800

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Less than a dozen wood-frame buildings exist on Beacon Hill in Boston, and this curious building is one of them, and also happens to be one of the oldest structures in the neighborhood! Built by 1800, this structure was constructed as an ell/addition to the Glapion-Middleton House at 5 Pinckney Street in Boston. The Glapion-Middleton House (previously featured) was constructed in 1787 after two Black men, George Middleton and Louis Glapion and their wives, built a small double house in the abolitionist center of Boston, Beacon Hill. In recent years, some have speculated that due to this living arrangement and other accounts, that Glapion and Middleton were in-fact gay men, but this is unsubstantiated. After the home was constructed, a two-story, five-bay ell was constructed which connected the home to Joy Street at the corner. The ell served as additional space for the two families and they appear to have had a workshop or store in part of the building. In 1855, owners demolished the center bay of the ell and erected a brick townhouse, similar to others in the neighborhood. The ell in this building was occupied as a store for the majority of its life and became an Italian restaurant and soon after a “Boyer’s Creamery Luncheon”. The property has since been converted to a residence.