Announcing FY2023 African American Historic Preservation Program Grant Recipients!

By Ivy Weeks, Capital Programs Administrator

We are pleased to announce this year’s African American Heritage Preservation Program (AAHPP) grant recipients! Jointly administered by The Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture and the Maryland Historical Trust, the AAHPP promotes the preservation of Maryland’s African American heritage by funding construction projects at significant sites throughout the state. This year’s projects include museums, cemeteries, an interpretive memorial, a historic lodge, community centers, and a historic school. Read more about our newly funded AAHPP grant projects below.

Mount Auburn Cemetery – Baltimore City ($100,000) | Sponsor: Mount Auburn Cemetery Company

Dedicated in 1872 and originally known as “The City of the Dead for Colored People,” Mount Auburn Cemetery was one of the first—and now only remaining—cemetery owned and operated by African Americans in Baltimore. It is a unique representation of the values and burial traditions of this community from the late 19th century to the present. Grant funds will support repairs to damaged decorative and security fencing, as well as resurfacing inner roadways.

Hoppy Adams House – Annapolis, Anne Arundel County ($100,000) | Sponsor: Charles W. “Hoppy” Adams Jr. Foundation, Inc.

Celebrated African American radio broadcaster for WANN Annapolis, Charles “Hoppy” Adams Jr was widely known for spreading soul and R&B music to Black and white audiences. Adams hosted popular concerts at Carr’s Beach, an important venue on the “Chitlin Circuit” during segregation. This project will rehabilitate the home Adams built for himself in 1964, which was left to the elements when he passed in 2005. Future phases of work will convert the space into a museum and event space to celebrate the life of Hoppy Adams and the unifying effect of R&B music during this divisive era.

Mt. Calvary United Methodist Church – Arnold, Anne Arundel County ($86,000) | Sponsor: Mount Calvary United Methodist Church

Mt. Calvary United Methodist Church began gathering on this site between 1832- 1842, making it the oldest African American congregation in Arnold. Grant funds will support the replacement of the 40-year-old roof and repairing the deteriorating handicap ramp that is currently causing moisture intrusion for the church, as well as adding a second ramp.

Eastport Elementary School, 3rd Street – Annapolis, Anne Arundel County ($100,000) | Sponsor: The Seafarers Yacht Club, Inc.

Originally built in 1918 as Eastport’s school for African American children, Eastport Elementary School closed when Anne Arundel School finally integrated, nearly a decade after Brown v Board of Education. Today, the building is owned by the Seafarers Yacht Club, Inc., formed in 1959 by a group of Black men with a shared interest in boating. They purchased the vacant building in 1967 after they were inspired to form their own club in response to marinas that routinely refused Black boaters to dock at their piers, as well as yacht clubs that denied membership to Black captains. This grant project will fund interior and exterior repairs and security improvements.

The club officers in dress whites, honoring a recently deceased member. Courtesy: Seafarers Yacht Club

Old Wallville School – Prince Frederick, Calvert County ($27,000) | Sponsor: Friends of the Old Wallville School, Inc.

A representation of the segregated educational facilities of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Old Wallville School is a one-room wooden schoolhouse that was used to educate African American students in the unincorporated village from 1880-1934. In 2006, the building was moved and placed adjacent to Calvert Elementary School. Now restored to its appearance in the early 1930s, it is used as a popular heritage tourism destination. This grant project will fund rot and roof repairs, structural signage replacement, and painting to protect the building from the elements and heavy use.

Parren J Mitchell House and Cultural Center – Baltimore City ($100,000) | Sponsor: Upton Planning Committee, Inc.

Originally built 1880, this rowhome is probably best known for its resident Parren Mitchell, the Black Congressmen to represent Maryland. This renovation project will return the long-vacant building to its historic role as a center of political and social life for the community and region as the new Parren Mitchell Center, which will serve as an events and retreat center. Grant funds will support exterior masonry restoration and repointing, window restoration, and accessibility improvements.

Boyds Negro School – Boyds, Montgomery County ($50,000) | Sponsor: Boyds Clarksburg Historical Society, Inc.

Built in 1895, Boyds Negro School is Montgomery County’s only remaining one-room schoolhouse for African American children that is regularly open to the public. This project will focus on engineering and site work to protect the building and grounds from flooding. It will also add a handicap ramp to make the building ADA accessible.

Richard Potter House – Denton, Caroline County ($50,000) | Sponsor: Fiber Arts Center of the Eastern Shore Inc.

Richard Potter published a book in 1866 – The Narrative of the Experience, Adventures and Escape of Richard Potter – documenting his experiences from when he was kidnapped in Greensboro, Maryland, enslaved in Delaware, and eventual escape and return to Caroline County to what is now known as the Richard Potter House (c.1810). The site is included as part of the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom. This project will restore the first floor of the home to its 1855 interior, using it as a museum and classroom space.

Mt. Zion Memorial Church– Princess Anne, Somerset County ($86,000) | Sponsor: Somerset County Historical Trust, Inc.

Mt. Zion Memorial Church survives as one of the few late-19th century African American churches in Somerset County and its intact condition enhances its architectural significance. Inside, one of the most distinctive features of the building — the early-20th century bead board ceiling – is at risk due to a leaking roof. While Mt. Zion is no longer used to hold regular church services, it does reflect the lasting influence of Methodism on the African American community in Somerset County. Grant funds will repair severe water damage.

New Bethel Methodist Episcopal Church – Berlin, Worcester County ($67,000) | Sponsor: New Bethel United Methodist Church, Inc.

Founded in 1855, New Bethel is the oldest African American Methodist congregation in Worcester County. Known as the Godfather of gospel music, Rev. Charles Albert Tindley was a member of the church in boyhood, and attended when he would visit from Philadelphia as an adult. The grant project will fund roof replacement and carpentry repairs.

Ridgley Methodist Church – Landover, Prince George’s County ($50,000) | Sponsor: Mildred Ridgley Gray Charitable Trust, Inc.

Through exhibitions and educational programs, the Prince George’s African American Museum and Cultural Center shares the county’s untold stories of African Americans. The grant-funded pre-development project will involve the design of facility renovations. They will also build an addition to provide support and affordable housing space for Black artists.

St. James African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church – Towson, Baltimore County ($30,000) | Sponsor: St. James African Union Methodist Protestant Church, Inc

In 1881, the St. James African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church was built on property believed to be the first documented African American landholding in Towson. The church began as a one-story wood-frame building and was raised to two stories in 1906 to accommodate the congregation’s growth. This project will fund structural repairs to the roof framing and chimney, as well as full roof replacement.

Buffalo Soldier Park – Eden, Wicomico County ($74,000) | Sponsor: Greater Washington Dc Chapter Of The Ninth And Tenth (Horse) Cavalry Association, Inc.

Named “Buffalo Soldier House” for his time in the United States 9th Cavalry Regiment Company C, Thomas Polk, Sr. built a two-story home on his property sometime in the late 1920s and rebuilt it in 1962-63 after it was destroyed in a fire. This project will focus on the pre-development and renovations needed to convert his home into the Buffalo Soldier Living History Site, which will include a visitors’ center and exhibit space.

Adams Methodist Episcopal Church and Cemetery – Lothian, Anne Arundel County ($80,000) | Sponsor: Adams U.M. Church

Adams Methodist Episcopal Church site contains two church buildings: the original 1883 church, a simple weatherboard-sided late-Victorian structure; and a more modern brick church, completed in 1968. Work for this project will focus on the brick church and on the graveyard on site.

If you are planning to apply for funding for an AAHPP project, the FY2024  grant round will begin in the spring of 2023, with workshops in April and applications due July 1. For more information about AAHPP, please visit our website or contact Ivy Weeks, Capital Programs Administrator, at ivy.weeks@maryland.gov.

Announcing FY2021 African American Historic Preservation Program Grant Recipients!

By Charlotte Lake, Ph.D., Capital Grant and Loan Programs Administrator

We are pleased to announce this year’s African American Heritage Preservation Program (AAHPP) grant recipients! This is the tenth year of grants since the program’s launch, marking $10 million total in funding awarded to 128 grant projects. The Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture and the Maryland Historical Trust jointly administer this program to promote the preservation of Maryland’s African American heritage sites. Grants fund construction projects at important sites throughout the state. This year’s projects include museums, cemeteries, an interpretive memorial, a historic lodge, community centers, and a historic school. Read more about our newly funded AAHPP grant projects below.

Project: Laurel Cemetery – Baltimore City ($88,000) | Sponsor: Laurel Cemetery Memorial Project, Inc.

Incorporated in 1852 as Baltimore’s first nondenominational cemetery for African Americans, Laurel Cemetery became known as one of the most beautiful and prominent African American cemeteries in the city. Descendants attempted to purchase the cemetery, but the owner prevailed against their legal challenges and leveled the cemetery for development in 1958. As a result, much of the cemetery currently lies beneath the parking lot of the Belair-Edison Crossing Shopping Center. Grant funds will support repairs to the retaining wall and construction of a pathway with interpretive signage in the unpaved portion of the cemetery, where recent archaeological investigations have identified undisturbed burials.

Project: Historic Oliver Community Firehouse – Baltimore City ($100,000) | Sponsor: African American Fire Fighters Historical Society, Inc.

Baltimore’s African American Fire Fighters Historical Society will use grant funds to acquire the historic firehouse, Truck House #5, through the City’s Vacants to Value program. The overall project will rehabilitate the building and convert it into the International Black Fire Fighters Museum & Safety Education Center.

Project: African American Heritage Center – Frederick, Frederick County ($100,000) | Sponsor: The African American Resources-Cultural and Heritage Society Incorporated

Grant funds will support the creation of a new center for African American heritage within a commercial space inside a modern parking garage. The project will reconfigure the commercial space and add accessibility improvements so that it can be used for exhibits, collections, and public programs to share Frederick County’s African American heritage and present this history within a broader regional and national context.

Carver School, photo courtesy of City of Cumberland

Project: Carver School – Cumberland, Allegany County ($100,000) | Sponsor: Mayor and City Council of Cumberland

Built in 1921 to accommodate the growing African American population of Cumberland, Carver School (previously known as Cumberland High School and the Frederick Street School) soon attracted students from outside Allegany County, including attendees from nearby areas of West Virginia. The school was renamed in 1941, when Principal Bracey held an election and students voted to name the school after Dr. George Washington Carver, who consented by letter to having the school named after him. The grant will fund necessary repairs to the building so that it can be rehabilitated for community use.

Project: Diggs-Johnson Museum – Granite, Baltimore County ($100,000) | Sponsor: Friends of Historical Cherry Hill A.U.M.P., Inc.

The Cherry Hill African United Methodist Church, now known as the Diggs-Johnson Museum, was built in the late 19th century, and functioned as a church through the 1970s before its conversion to a museum in the 1990s. The museum documents the history of the African American community of Baltimore County, and in particular the enslaved and free African Americans of Granite, many of whom worked the area’s granite quarries. The grant project will fund repairs to the church’s foundation and grave markers in its burial yard.

Kennedy Farmhouse, photo courtesy of John Brown Historical Foundation

Project: Kennedy Farm / John Brown Raid Headquarters – Sharpsburg, Washington County ($99,000) | Sponsor: John Brown Historical Foundation, Inc.

This grant will fund repairs to the timber and chinking of the Kennedy Farmhouse, a log building used as the headquarters by John Brown and his band in planning their famous raid on Harper’s Ferry. While the raid was planned, the farmhouse also served as living quarters for the five African American members of the band:  Dangerfield Newby; Lewis Leary; Shields Green; John Copeland, Jr; and Osborn Anderson. The raid on Harper’s Ferry is considered a pivotal moment in the lead-up to the American Civil War.

Project: Galesville Community Center – Galesville, Anne Arundel County ($45,000) | Sponsor: Galesville Community Center Organization, Inc.

Of the fifteen schools in Anne Arundel County built using money provided by the Julius Rosenwald Fund, which supported the establishment of African American schools throughout the southern United States, only six survive today. The grant project will fund repairs to the roof, siding, and windows of the Galesville Rosenwald School, built in 1929, which now serves as a vibrant community center.

Howard House, photo courtesy of Maryland Department of Natural Resources

Project: Howard House – Brookeville, Montgomery County ($100,000) | Sponsor: Department of Natural Resources – Maryland Park Service

The Howard House, currently in ruins, is the last intact building associated with Enoch George Howard. Born enslaved, George Howard purchased his freedom and eventually became a prosperous landowner, donating land to establish Howard Chapel and a community school. The grant project will restore the stone house’s exterior to its original appearance for interpretive use.

Project: Bazzel Church – Cambridge, Dorchester County ($100,000) | Sponsor: Good Shepherd Association

In 1911, the Bazzel Church was either built on or moved to its current site, where the original 1876 chapel stood before it burned down. The church, located in Bucktown, is best known for its association with Harriet Tubman, whose family members reportedly worshipped at the original church building. Initial stabilization of the church was completed in the summer of 2020, and the grant will fund the next phase of repairs, eventually leading to the rehabilitation of the building for use as an interpretive center.

Project: Mt. Zoar AME Church – Conowingo, Cecil County ($32,000) | Sponsor: Mount Zoar African Methodist Episcopal Church

Mt. Zoar African Methodist Episcopal Church was built in 1881 and the earliest known burial in the adjacent cemetery dates to 1848. Over 30 veterans are buried in the cemetery, including soldiers whose graves are marked with Grand Army of the Republic flag holders. The grant project will fund repairs to the cemetery and grave markers.

Prince Georges African-American Museum & Cultural Center, photo courtesy of Prince George’s African-American Museum & Cultural Center at North Brentwood, Inc.

Project: Prince George’s African American Museum and Cultural Center – North Brentwood, Prince George’s County ($20,000) | Sponsor: Prince George’s African-American Museum and Cultural Center at North Brentwood, Inc.

Through exhibitions and educational programs, the Prince George’s African American Museum and Cultural Center shares the county’s untold stories of African Americans. The grant-funded pre-development project will involve the design of facility renovations and an addition to provide support space and affordable housing space for African American artists.

Project: Millard Tydings Memorial Park – Havre de Grace, Harford County ($25,000) | Sponsor: The Sgt. Alfred B. Hilton Memorial Fund, Inc.

Established as Bayside Park in the late 1800s, Millard Tydings Memorial Park includes recreational amenities as well as memorials to those who served in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Grant funds will help construct a new monument dedicated to Sergeant Alfred B. Hilton, Harford County’s only recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. The monument will include permanent interpretive material about Sgt. Hilton and the role of his U.S. Colored Troops regiment in the Civil War.

Project: Union of Brothers and Sisters of Fords Asbury Lodge No. 1 – White Marsh, Baltimore County ($91,000) | Sponsor: The Union of Brothers and Sisters of Fords Asbury, Inc.

In 1874, Dr. Walter T. Allender constructed and donated this building to the Baltimore County School Commissioners for use as an African American School, initially known as Colored School 2, District 11. The Union of Brothers and Sisters of Ford’s Asbury Lodge No. 1, an African American benevolent society, held monthly meetings on the second floor of the school building until 1922, when Baltimore County Public Schools donated it to the lodge. The grant project will fund repairs and accessibility improvements that allow the building to be used by the public again.

If you are planning to apply for funding for an AAHPP project, the FY2022 grant round will begin in the spring of 2021, with workshops in April and applications due July 1. For more information about AAHPP, please visit our website or contact Charlotte Lake, Capital Grant and Loan Programs Administrator, at charlotte.lake@maryland.gov.

Forgotten Forefathers of Maryland (Guest Blog)

By Steven X. Lee

The greatest story never told in Maryland is the history of her free early African American people. From the fixed focus of slavery radiates Maryland African American history as it is documented and presented. But Maryland, as a Colony and a State, was home to the largest free black population prior to the Civil War, whose stories are equally significant. Their impact was profound and integral in the making of Maryland, and the nation. Yet this remarkable dimension of Maryland’s history, of a people’s heritage, is largely omitted in the Maryland education and historical milieu.

The history of Maryland’s African Americans does not begin with slavery.  It begins with free and indentured black passengers on the Ark and Dove 1634 landing upon the Maryland shore.  There were at least three men of African descent in the passenger manifest: John Price, Mimus and Mathias deSousa, who, like so many of their free and indentured white brethren on those ships, freely chose to blaze life anew in the Colony. (Not until 1642 did the first slave-ships arrive, marking slavery’s introduction.)  Thus from inception, the population and story of Maryland African Americans begins with, and grows from, free people.

Robert Bannaky Historical Marker, mounted on rock at the first intersection in the
Benjamin Banneker Historical Park, in Oella.

The contributions of Benjamin Banneker, first African American scientist, and the dedicated service of Jocko Graves, are icons often cited in the Early Maryland story. But these two Revolutionary War Era figures are typically presented as anomalies among a generally enslaved black population. In actuality there were thousands of free African American women and men across the state at that time. Benjamin Banneker’s parents, Robert and Mary Bannaky, themselves were pioneer members of a burgeoning community of free blacks that came to be known as Mount Gilboa in Baltimore County. The Hill in Easton and Scott’s Point in Chestertown are but two more of the many vibrant free black communities rooted in Early Maryland.

Bethel A.M.E. Church, The Hill, Easton. From this very pulpit Frederick Douglass once addressed the congregation of this historic black church. Here, Maryland Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford speaks from it on February 27th, 2016.

There have been historians who purposely sought to encourage a balanced view of the early Maryland African American experience.  There’s the work of historian Reverend George Bragg of Baltimore, who recorded the legacy of both free and enslaved African Americans in his 1914 book Men of Maryland (including accounts of women as well).  There were oral histories told by the late-20th/early-21th century griot, Jacqueline Lanier, who regularly infused accounts of Maryland’s free early African Americans throughout her storytelling and lectures. But, by and large, the conventional cast for early Maryland African American history has been one-dimensional, around the focal point of enslaved people.

Cannon Street, Scott’s Point of Chestertown. From late 18th century onwards, many prominent free African Americans resided on this street, including the wealthy African American businessman, Thomas Cuff.

With the realization that there were multitudes of free African Americans residing in Revolutionary War Era Maryland, it defies reason to accept the conventional depiction of black people essentially as slaves with peripheral lives, during this momentous period. What truly were the lives, the roles, the contributions of free African Americans to the rise of Maryland and the United States of America?  Certainly this is one of the missing chapters in the greatest Maryland story never told.

The American Revolution was a time of heroic exploits and battles, exceptional sacrifice and camaraderie, of multi-cultural colonists bonding to forge our State and Union. But as I went from K through 12, not one of my Maryland schoolbooks taught that among those many valiant soldiers, were free Maryland African Americans serving in the Revolutionary War.

Jacqueline Lanier (1947 – 2003) – Collector, storyteller and jazz historian WEAA radio host.

Maryland African Americans served at all levels of defense: in the civilian guard, state militia, and Continental Army. General George Washington and the governor came to remove all barriers to African American enlistment, calling upon those free and enslaved to help meet depleted troop quotas faced in the Continental Army and the Maryland Line.  In July of 1780, during the drive to raise troops in St. Mary’s County, Richard Barnes, son of Colonel Abraham Barnes, wrote in a correspondence to Maryland Governor Thomas Lee: “Our recruiting business in this County goes on much worse than I expected. … The greatest part of those that have enlisted are free Negroes & Mulattoes.” [1]

In one instance of Charles County, six “Mulatto” men, all appearing to be of the same family, registered. [2]  Charles, Francis, Henry, Leonard, Thomas and William were all ‘Proctors’ who enlisted at the same place and time.  That was a most substantial sacrifice for any family to give to a war.

“We have undertaken to present … in addition to the historical sketches given, some important data throwing light upon the history of “black slaves”, and “free blacks”, in Maryland…” 
 – Rev. George F. Bragg, excerpt from his book MEN OF MARYLAND, 1914

”Of the services and sufferings of the colored soldiers of the Revolution, no attempt has, to our knowledge, been made to preserve a record.  Their history is not written; it lies upon the soil watered with their blood: who shall gather it?” [3]  These were the words of publisher, librarian and teacher, William Howard Day in 1852, when he addressed ‘The National Convention of the Colored Freemen’ held in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Sources vary in the total amount given for Maryland African American Revolutionary War soldiers. Estimates range from 1,200 to over 8,000 serving in battalions of the Continental Army, Maryland Line, as well as in the Maryland Flying Camp, which reportedly had at least six black servicemen in 1776.  The First Maryland Brigade had at least 60 African American troops serving that year. [4]

It will take a concerted effort to truly restore the histories of Maryland’s unsung black soldiers, to unbury and compile the many scattered, overlooked vestiges of records, artifacts and stories.  It was thanks to a found 1828 newspaper obituary that the bravery and many battle exploits of Thomas Carney were recovered – a black Maryland Revolutionary War superhero, highlighted in a 1989 Maryland Historical Magazine article by William Calderhead. [5]

Free African Americans just as earnestly defended the new nation on the civilian front.  Early in the war General Washington proposed hiring free black wagoners from Maryland. [6] Equally integral and relevant was the role of free African American watermen, as the Chesapeake Bay was a vital transportation and strategic battlefront. Hence Maryland’s free black watermen were employed, where their maritime and boat-building skills, knowledge of the Bay and its islands, were invaluable.

So interwoven and extensive was the role of free African Americans in Revolutionary War Era Maryland, that it gives pause as to how/why have they been omitted in education and history.  It is the call of the ancestors, to recall to life the lost songs and stories of those who are indeed forgotten forefathers of our nation.  The history of Maryland is misunderstood and incomplete without them.

Steven X. Lee serves on the Maryland Commission of African American History and Culture and is the Program Director of The Heritage Museum. He also served as the Founding Director of the Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum.

All photo credits are the author’s unless otherwise indicated.

References

[1]  Richard Barnes to Governor Lee, July 23,1780, Archives of Maryland XLV, 24  /  The Negro in the American Revolution, p. 56, Benjamin Quarles, 1961

[2]  Forgotten Patriots, Daughters of the American Revolution 2008

[3]  “Proceeding of the Convention of Colored Freemen”, Cincinnati Ohio,1852  /  The Black Phalanx, 21, Joseph T. Wilson, 1994

[4]  “Finding the Maryland 400”, the Maryland State Archives  /  Muster Rolls and other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online vol.18, and fold3.com

[5]  William L. Calderhead, MARYLAND HISTORICAI. MAGAZINE vol. 84, no. 4, WINTER 1989, 319-321

[6]  Headquarter to the Committee of Congress with the Army, Jan. 29, 1778, Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington, X, 401  /  The Negro in the American Revolution, p. 100, Benjamin Quarles, 1961

Introducing Map-Based Medusa: Viewing Maryland’s Historic Places in Real Time

By Gregory Brown, Cultural Resource Information Manager

To kick off Preservation Month this May, the Maryland Historical Trust is pleased to announce a new interactive map-based tool, “map-based Medusa,” to explore the state’s inventory of historic places and archeological sites.  Taking advantage of new web-based mapping technology, map-based Medusa offers the opportunity to view Maryland’s extensive geographic database of historic and cultural properties and to access the records linked to these resources, all within an easily accessible user friendly interface.

The new system allows both in-house and remote access to the documentation of over 60,000 architectural and archeological resources in a variety of ways. Consultants and staff can view a proposed project area and see all known cultural resources, with links to Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties forms, National Register nominations, determinations of eligibility, and other detailed documents. Map-based Medusa also allows you to look up a property by name, address or inventory number, and view that property on a map along with associated forms and photos.

Most architectural information is freely available in Medusa. Archeological site location is restricted to qualified archeological professionals as mandated in the state’s Access to Site Location Policy. Any qualified professional can apply for a Medusa account to get access. For assistance using map-based Medusa, tutorials and FAQs are available online. We will introduce webinars and introductory videos in the coming months.

The new map-based Medusa application was created with the technical assistance of the Applications Development team of the Maryland Department of Planning, the Maryland Historical Trust’s parent agency. We are grateful for the efforts of Information Services Manager Ted Cozmo, Doug Lyford, Greg Schuster, and Debbie Czerwinski, building on earlier database development work of Maureen Kavanagh, Carmen Swann and Jennifer Falkinburg. The online version of Medusa was supported in part through a Preserve America grant administered by the National Park Service, Department of Interior, and by funding from the Maryland State Highway Administration through its Transportation Enhancement Program.

To start using map-based Medusa, go to https://mht.maryland.gov/secure/medusa/.

For more information, please contact Gregory Brown, Cultural Resource Information Manager, at gregory.brown@maryland.gov.

‘Mount Gilboa’ of Oella

By Commissioner Steven X. Lee, Maryland Commission on African American History & Culture

Journeying west along the Old National Road (Frederick Road) from Baltimore City to Frederick, Maryland, the historic mill town of Oella midway en route can easily be passed unnoticed.  It lies at the western border of Baltimore County, where the Old National Road meets the Patapsco River.  It is the synergy of river and road that imparts a big history to this small-town America region.

 

“Oella”, Baltimore County, at the Ellicott City / Howard County border. This town sign is at the terminal point of Oella Avenue, where it meets Frederick (the Old National) Road, and the Patapsco River. [2014 / Courtesy of SXLee]

Research for a publication-in-progress, “Patapsco River Communities – Historic Oella & Ellicott City ”, has revealed many compelling and diverse his- and her-stories of the American experience from this picturesque landscape.  Among them are some from a small vintage African American neighborhood in Oella that is vanishing with the tides of time and development.  Oella’s African American neighborhood, often called “Mount Gilboa” in its heyday, has been a part of the town since its earliest beginnings.   It was in the 1700s that free blacks first acquired land in this area, evolving a close-knit neighborhood that ran for about a quarter-mile along the eastern sector of Oella Avenue, from Westchester Avenue to Old Frederick Road.

Oella’s most famous early American resident, Mr. Benjamin Bannaky, was a member of one of the founding families of this African American community.  Better known as Benjamin Banneker — scientist, clockmaker, author, abolitionist, farmer, and a surveyor of the Federal Territory — he, like his contemporaries Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, was one of American society’s earliest renaissance men and innovators.  And but for the few months in 1791 that he was away surveying the land for the nation’s capital, he spent his entire life on the family farmstead in Oella.

300 Oella Avenue, main entrance to the Benjamin Banneker Historical Park of Baltimore County. This site was originally the homestead of the Bannaky family, now a public park of cultural and natural history. [2010 / Courtesy of SXLee]

It was Benjamin’s parents, Robert and Mary Bannaky, who had purchased the land in 1737.   Their 100-acre property flanked Oella Avenue and crossed the Old National Road, including hilltop, hillside and wetlands terrain, with natural springs, access to the Coopers Branch stream, and the Patapsco River.   The varied landscape enabled the Bannakys to have a viable and sustainable farm, from which they provided fresh produce, tobacco, honey, herbs, candles and other products to the burgeoning town.  From the number of oyster shells found during the Maryland Historical Trust’s 1980s archaeological digs around the Bannaky cabin foundations, it is evident that the fruits of the river were harvested as well.

The African American neighborhood ends at the highest point in the landscape of this segment of Oella Avenue, at Westchester Avenue.  Here it culminates with Oella’s oldest institution – Mount Gilboa A.M.E. Church.   It too shares an early American genesis.  In colonial times, its property was part of the large Williams estate.  When Mary Williams died in 1786, in her will* she freed her slaves and left them this parcel of land on which to build their house of worship.   Although the original wooden structure burned down in the 19^th century, the church and congregation of Mount Gilboa A.M.E. have continued at this site since its inception.

Mount Gilboa A.M.E. Church, on Westchester Avenue at Oella Avenue, is Historic Oella’s oldest institution. [2015 / Maryland Historical Trust.]

The church came to be a symbol and namesake for the African American neighborhood that developed eastward down Oella Avenue.  During the nation’s Bicentennial, the state monument of an obelisk in honor of Benjamin Banneker was here erected on the church grounds  (the 1985 archaeological discovery of Banneker’s actual homestead further down Oella Avenue had not yet been made).   Mount Gilboa A.M.E. Church continues as an enduring symbol among Oella’s local legacies.

What was life like for the African American neighbors of “Mount Gilboa” in Oella?  That can best be found in the telling of those who lived it.  And Baltimore County historian Louis S. Diggs must be credited for his initiative to document many of those stories in the oral tradition.  One of the Diggs interviews conducted in the late 1990s is with Mrs. Lydia Harris Cole, a native and resident of Oella Avenue in the twentieth century.

Mrs. Lydia Harris Cole at her home in ‘Mount Gilboa’, Oella. [Circa 1990 / Courtesy of Louis Diggs]

“ …My name is Lydia Harris, I was born in Oella, in July of 1940.  The home I’m in now was always in the family. My aunt, Addie Hall, came from Washington and bought this home that I’m living in now in 1962; and she passed away in 1986.  I’m a descendant of the Halls.  My grandmother and grand-father were Jeanette and Caleb Hall. They lived next door.

… This is the African American part of Oella, from the Country Corner Store, on down to Old Frederick Road, mostly African Americans lived here, except [for the white families of] the Treuths, the Boones, and the Colfields.  Some of the African Americans [families] are the Rideouts, the Halls, the Matthews, and the Hendersons.

…We weren’t allowed in the section of Oella down the road where the white people mostly lived. The line was the Country Corner Store.  But, regardless, we all got along pretty well.

…The Country Corner Store was the one place we all went to daily.  When I was a kid, a Mr. Johnson owned the store, and later, Mr. Jay Patel purchased it. Both owners were very good to the Colored people.

The Country Corner Store in mid 20th century, at the corner of Oella Avenue and Westchester Avenue. In the background on the left can be seen the side of Mount Gilboa A.M.E. Church. [Courtesy of Jay Patel]

We couldn’t go to the Westchester School [in Oella] because that was for the White kids.  …We used to have to catch the streetcar right behind my house to go to school, which was Banneker School in Catonsville.  We went from the first to the twelfth grade there.

…African American kids at Banneker School came from all over the area:  Woodstock, Granite, Relay, Halethorpe, Arbutus, and Randallstown.

Kids at play in front of the Benjamin Banneker School, in the historic African American community of Winters Lane in Catonsville. This school provided education for the African American children of Catonsville and its neighboring Oella, as well as of the other communities of west Baltimore County in the era of segregation. [Circa 1941 / Courtesy of Odessa White and Louis Diggs]

Some of the older Blacks in the community attended school in Mount Gilboa AME Church, in the bottom of the church.  My mother, uncles, etc., attended that school.

The neighborhood is not like it used to be in the old days. I remember the big holidays, like the fourth of July when everyone had cookouts and activities.  We’d just go from house to house having a great time.  People here don’t do that now.

Front row – left to right: Malfalda Pollitt, Consuella White, and one of the Hoke girls. Rear – left to right: two of the Hoke children, and Sylvia Pollitt. [Circa 1940s / Courtesy of Odessa White and Louis Diggs]

Children of the Hoke and Pollitt families at the home of George and Ethel White at 321 Oella Avenue. The white Hoke family, and the black Pollitt and White families were all neighbors in ‘Mount Gilboa’. [Circa 1940s / Courtesy of Odessa White and Louis Diggs]

Growing up in Oella was nice.  We played mostly among ourselves.  I would play with the Edmond girls, and my brother would play with the guys. We couldn’t go out to play until after the work was done, and back in those days, there was no electricity, no running water, so we had a lot of chores to do.  We had to do all of our washing on the washboard, carry the water three and four times and dump it, and in the wintertime, had to hang the clothes up on the line in the snow.  There was a well right on the property, and we would pump the water and carry it in the house, put it on the stove to heat it, and then put it in the tub.  Of course we had an outhouse in the backyard.  Plumbing and sewage didn’t come around in our area until 1956. We had all the usual animals on our property, chickens, pigs, dogs and cats.  When we got sick, we had some of the old country curing by my grandmother.

There used to be as many as sixteen or seventeen African American families here; I recall that this community was called Mount Gilboa years ago.  I have some letters that my uncle wrote when he was in the war that he wrote back to my grandmother.  On the front of the envelope was her address in Mount Gilboa, Maryland.”

Neighbor Dorothy Dorsey walking home from the Country Corner Store, along Oella Avenue. The store is a couple blocks behind her (out of frame) on the right. The land of Benjamin Banneker is just in front of her (out of frame) on the left. [Circa 1941 / Courtesy of Odessa White and Louis Diggs]

 

The enclave that was once the “Mount Gilboa” neighborhood now fades to memories.  Most of its elders have passed, and younger generations moved on to other locales.  Old houses have been replaced or made anew, as Oella has been redeveloped and rediscovered for the unique charm it encompasses.  But the icons of the community remain.  Mount Gilboa A.M.E. Church, the Country Corner Store, the Benjamin Banneker Historical Park & Museum are all within a stroll, and like many other features of Oella, make for a surprisingly intriguing day trip into Maryland Americana.

A museologist, Commissioner Lee also served as the Founding Director for the Benjamin Banneker Historical Park & Museum.

 

* –  African American Civil War Memorial Freedom Foundation Collection

New Historical Markers along Maryland’s Roads

Old Wallville School Marker Unveiling. Photo courtesy of David Krankowski

 

The Maryland Historical Trust, State Highway Administration, and local partners have installed six new and two replacement historical markers along Maryland’s roadways, bringing the total number of markers to 822!