Mary and Eliza Freeman Houses - Northeast African American Historic Places Map (sitios de interés)
Descripción del sitio
| 354 and 360 Main Street | Bridgeport, CT 06604 | | ||
About: The Mary & Eliza Freeman Houses ( built ca. 1848) - listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places - are the only surviving homes in Bridgeport, CT's "Little Liberia" (originally Ethiope), a seafaring community of free people of color. Constructed the very year that Connecticut abolished slavery, they are the oldest homes built and owned by Blacks in the state. They provide irreplaceable evidence of African American life prior to emancipation and the Civil War. The Freeman Houses, relatively unchanged, stand on their original foundations.
As endangered properties, both houses are currently the focus of a preservation effort headed by representatives from local nonprofit organizations and the city. The goal is to restore the homes to their nineteenth-century form and use them as venues for education and research on Bridgeport's African American history.
 Mary Freeman HousePhotos and text courtesy Action for Bridgeport Community Development |
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