African-American History...

 

African-American History—African Americans have played a significant role in the history of Prince George's County, as illustrated in numerous historic sites, schools, and settlements; St. Paul's (Free Hope Baptist) Church, Blacksox Park, Abraham Hall, St. Mary's Beneficial Society Hall, Mt. Nebo Church, the Charles Duckett Log Cabin, Dorsey Chapel, and the Northampton Slave Quarter Site and Archaeological Park.

Free black families living in the County prior to the Civil War were not able to acquire titles to land until the 1870s or later.

Discover the richness and diversity that Prince George's County has to offer. For over 300 years, African Americans have raised families and built communities that have been vital to the growth and development of Prince George's County and its history. They have established neighborhoods and built physical structures, many of which survive in the midst of the County's ever changing landscape. The African-American Heritage Sites Guide invites you to take a visual journey to those African American historic sites and buildings -- whether through offered guided tours (specific locations) or self-guided tours. Through its history depictions and imagery, the AAHS guide describes the origins, functions and architectural style of each site, and is the perfect keepsake for you to use and share.

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View the AAHS guide online

Special activities, programs, and events are held at our Historic sites throughout the year. Click here for our Calendar of Events.

Photos are courtesy of their respective websites.

Abraham Hall

7612 Old Muirkirk Road

Beltsville, MD 20705

240-264-3415

Additional Resource

Constructed in 1889, Abraham Hall is located in the historic African-American community of Rossville. The first African-American historic site in Prince George's to be fully restored utilizing public funds, Abraham Hall served as a meeting hall, house of worship, school, and social hall. It was constructed by the Benevolent Sons & Daughters of Abraham. Renovated and re-dedicated in 2009, the building houses the Black History Program of the Maryland-National Capital & Planning Commission, Prince George's County Parks & Recreation.

African American Museum and Cultural Center at North Brentwood

Gallery 110, the Gateway Arts Center

3901 Rhode Island Ave

Brentwood MD 20722

301-209-0592

Additional Resource

The Prince George's African American Museum and Cultural Center at North Brentwood, Inc. (PGAAMCC) aspires to become recognized nationally and internationally for its innovative approach to the documentation, interpretation, preservation and presentation of local and regional African American history and culture. The museum will be constructed on a 2.5-acre site in North Brentwood, Maryland, the first municipality in Prince George's County incorporated by African American citizens. Gallery 110, the Gateway Arts Center is PGAAMCC's interim exhibitions and public programming space.

The idea of a Prince George's County-based African American cultural institution was developed in the late 1990s by the North Brentwood Historical Society, the Friends of North Brentwood, and the determined leadership of former Mayor Lillian K. Beverly. Our presence in Gallery 110 at the Gateway Arts Center is the result of support from elected and appointed officials, as well as the dedication of passionate board members. Our goal in this space is to create an intimate encounter with African American culture that will inform and shape our planning of the permanent structure a few blocks away.

Belair Mansion

12207 Tulip Grove Drive

Bowie MD 20715

Additional Resource

Built in 1745 for Provincial Governor Samuel Ogle, Belair, like most Chesapeake plantations, depended on the labor of enslaved Africans. A permanent exhibit, "Put to Work in Making Tobacco", interprets the contrasting lives of the gentry and the slave population who called Belair home. An exhibit at the Belair Stables honors the significant role of African-American jockeys in the 1800s and 1900s.

Blacksox Park

2200 Mitchellville Road

Bowie MD 20716

Additional Resource

This 70-acre park was once home to two local African-American sandlot baseball teams, the Mitchellville Tigers and the Washington Blacksox. From the 1930s to the 1970s, African-American sandlot teams, including the Brentwood Flashes, Laurel All-Stars, Oxon Hill Aztecs, and the Glenarden Braves played here. The Homestead Grays, a professional Negro League team, played the Washington Blacksox at the field.

Bostwick

3901 48th Street

Bladensburg MD 20710

Additional Resource

Bostwick is one of only four pre-Revolutionary War structures still standing in Bladensburg, Maryland. Built in 1746 Bostwick is a 2-1/2-story, Georgian brick house, with a flared gable roof and bracketed cornice, a high buttress at the south gable end, and a kitchen wing to the north. It was built for Christopher Lowndes who was a leading citizen and local merchant in Bladensburg. His trading company imported spices, building materials, dry goods, and slaves. He also owned a shipyard where ocean-going vessels were constructed as well as a ropewalk that manufactured the cordage necessary for shipping lines. It was later the home of Lowndes' son-in-law, Benjamin Stoddert, first Secretary of the Navy. Bostwick stands high on a terraced lawn, and is a prominent landmark in the town.

Cherry Hill Cemetery

6821 Ingraham Street

Riverdale MD 20737

301-627-1286

Additional Resource

Cherry Hill Cemetery, an African-American family burial ground, was established in 1884 on the farm of Josiah Adams. It is the only intact African-American family farm cemetery in the Bladensburg-Riverdale-Hyattsville area. The graves are marked with slabs of local ironstone and plants. African-American families, including the Adams, Becketts and Plummers, buried their loved ones at Cherry Hill through the 1940s.

Columbia Air Center

16000 Croom Airport Road

Upper Marlboro MD 20772

301-627-6074

Additional Resource

The first African-American owned and operated airfield in Maryland, if not the nation, was licensed in 1941. John W. Greene, Jr., a pioneer in black aviation, was instrumental in developing the airfield originally called Riverside Field. Occupied by the U.S. Navy during World War II, the airfield reopened as Columbia Air Center, offering a flying school, charter services and maintenance shop. The first African-American Civil Air Patrol Squadron in the Washington, D.C. area was formed here. The site is located within Patuxent River Park which is owned anad operated by The Maryland-National Park and Planning Commission. This site is currently used for agricultural purposes and none of the buildings or runways that once stood on the site are extant; interpretive signage tells the story of the historic airport and provides a map of the airfield when it was in use.

Dorsey Chapel

10704 Brookland Road

Glenn Dale, MD 20769

240-264-3415

Additional Resource

Dorsey Chapel is a small meeting-house-style church which served as the spiritual and social center of the rural African-American community of Brookland at the turn of the 20th century. Construction of the chapel was completed in 1900; it was named after its first minister, the Reverend A.B. Dorsey. A small, active congregation occupied the chapel from 1900 to 1971. In 1971, the congregation merged with the congregation from Perkins Chapel to form Glenn Dale United Methodist Church, and Dorsey Chapel was no longer used. Initially scheduled for demolition in 1980, the Friends of Dorsey Chapel organized efforts to preserve and restore the Church.

The Charles Duckett Log Cabin

16000 Croom Airport Road

Upper Marlboro MD 20772

301-627-6074

Additional Resource

The Duckett Cabin is a rare chestnut log tenant farmhouse from the 1880s. It was likely built by Charles Duckett, a former slave and landsman in the Union Navy during the Civil War. The cabin is part of the Patuxent Rural Life Museums complex, which includes the Duvall Tool Museum, a tobacco museum, a blacksmith shop and an early 20th century Sears, Roebuck & Company simplex house.

Fairmont Heights School

737 61st Avenue

Fairmont Heights MD 20743

301-925-1360

Additional Resource

1912; 2 story frame schoolhouse of institutional Foursquare form; a pyramidal roof cupola rises from the front plane of the hip roof and the original school bell is preserved inside. Designed by noted black architect William Sidney Pittman of Washington, D. C.; after its construction, it had the only facilities for industrial training of blacks in Prince George's County; Served as school until 1934; important landmark in Fairmont Heights.

Free Hope Baptist Church

4107 47th Street

Bladensburg MD 20710

301-779-1278

Additional Resource

818, 1908, brick gable-roof church with later bell tower and lower gable-roof addition. Third Presbyterian church building in Bladensburg; sold to black Baptist congregation in 1874; sole surviving historic structure in industrial area.

Gibbons Methodist Episcopal Church Site, Education Building & Cemetery
Gibbons Church Road

Brandywine MD 20613

301-372-6250

1920s, 1 story frame building with gable-end facade; cemetery c. 1900 onward. Founded by a group formerly enslaved African-Americans in 1884 who constructed a frame church building in 1889; it was demolished in 1967; congregations like this helped build a sense of community and self-determination among members in an era when political, social, and economic opportunities were limited by the failure of Reconstruction-era reforms and the structures of government-sponsored segregation.

Holy Family Roman Catholic Church

12010 Woodmore Road

Mitchellville MD 20721

301-249-2266

Additional Resource

Holy Family Church was built to serve the local Black Catholic community of then rural Woodmore and Mitchellville. It is a fine example of late Victorian ecclesiastical architecture with Gothic and stick style decorative elements. Built in 1890 by parishioners, mostly local black tenant farmers, Holy Family is a front gabled frame church.

Lakeland Community High School

Maryland

Additional Resources

1925 Neoclassical brick Rosenwald school with a 1940s addition. One of the first high schools for blacks in the county; built to serve the communities of Bladensburg, Brentwood, north Brentwood, Lakeland, Ammendale, Muirkirk and Laurel.

Laurel Historical Society and Museum

817 Main Street

Laurel MD 20707

301-725-7975

Additional Resource

Located in a former mill-workers' home, this museum houses collections of books, photographs, tools, personal artifacts, textiles, and oral histories. Its main floor is the site of exhibits devoted to the history of Laurel and the surrounding community. Downstairs is devoted to the gift shop, additional exhibits, and an audio-visual area. The 2,590-square-foot brick and stone building was erected in the early 1840s by mill owners to house their employees.

Marietta House Museum

5626 Bell Station Road

Glenn Dale MD 20769

301-464-5291

Additional Resource

Marietta, the Federal-style brick home of Gabriel Duvall, an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built circa 1813, Marietta remained under ownership of the Duvall family until 1902. Justice Duvall's law office and root cellar remain today. Marietta operates as an historic house museum and is furnished and interpreted to reflect the three generations of Duvall's that occupied the house.

Mount Nebo A.M.E. Church & Cemetery

17214 Queen Anne Road

Upper Marlboro MD 20774

301-249-7545

Additional Resource

1925 one-story frame gable-roof meeting-house with centered entry tower, built to replace 1877 chapel. Exemplifies the long history of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in this rural area; with adjoining school became focal point for local black community.

Northampton Plantation Slave Quarters & Archaeological Park

Lake Overlook Drive

Bowie MD 20721

301-627-1286

Additional Resource

Historians and archaeologists are working together to reconstruct the lives of the many slaves and tenant farmers who lived at Northampton Plantation. This historic site features reconstructed foundations of two slave quarteres from the former Northampton Plantation (1673-1860). Archaeological excavations have recovered artifacts and information about the lives of African American slaves and tenant farmers who lived there from the late 18th through the mid-20th century. Interpretive signage describes the site's hisotry and ongoing research.

Nottingham Myers Church & Cemetery

15601 Brooks Church Road

Upper Marlboro MD 20772

1939, 1983, vernacular wood frame and wood clapboard sided church; connecting wing and hyphen constructed in 1983. Focal point for the black population in the Croom-Nottingham region; strong historical connections to the Mansfield plantation and to the work of the Freedmen's Bureau.

Poplar Hill on His Lordship's Kindness

7606 Woodyard Road

Clinton MD 20735

301-856-0358

Additional Resource

Owned and operated by the John M. and Sara R. Walton Foundation, Inc., Poplar Hill on His Lordship's Kindness is one of three structures in Prince George's County designated as National Historic Landmarks. Originally named "Poplar Hill," its present name is derived from a 7,000-acre land grand from Charles Calvert, the third Lord Baltimore, to Col. Henry Darnall in 1703. The current mansion was built between 1785 and 1787 by the colonel's great-grandson, Robert Darnall. He replaced the earlier residence of his father, Henry Darnall III, with this beautiful Georgian home. Since its construction, Poplar Hill has been home to many families, including the Darnalls, the Sewalls, the Daingerfelds, U.S. Senator John S. and Susan Daingerfeld Barbour, the Hales, the Dunhams, U.S. Ambassador David Bruce and his wife, Evangeline Bruce, the Sayers, and the last owners, the Walton family. Poplar Hill on His Lordship's Kindness is an institution within a community that reflects the human spirit and the history of nation within the telling of stories about families, both black and white, from the late 17th century through the time of 20th century. Poplar Hill is currently closed.

Poplar Hill School

19104 Croom Road

Brandywine MD 20613

1936 side-gabled frame schoolhouse. Poplar Hill School is significant for its role in the history of public education for African-Americans in Prince George's County during the era of government-sanctioned segregation. Poplar Hill School was the second school for "colored" students in the area, replacing a small one-room schoolhouse located approximately 600 feet to the northwest.

Queen's Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church Site & Cemetery

7410 Old Murirkirk Road

Beltsville MD 20705

301-937-7122

This is the site of the original Queen's Chapel, built in 1868. The original church was a small log chapel, and included a cemetery that was already being used by African Americans in the Muirkirk area. The original chapel has been replaced twice, most recently by a brick church that stands on the opposite side of the road. The construction of another chapel on an adjacent lot is currently planned. The site of the original chapel is now the cemetery of Queen's Chapel United Methodist Church. The oldest inscribed gravestone dates back to 1886.

Ridgely School

8507 Central Avenue

Capitol Heights MD 20743

1927, vernacular wood frame shingled school building with hipped roof. Built in 1927 as part of the Rosenwald program, later used as a special center and since 1960 served as the bus management office for Prince George's County Public schools. Most intact of the 9 remaining of the original 23 Rosenwald Schools in the County.

Ridgely Methodist Episcopal Church

8900 Central Ave

Capitol Heights MD 20743

301-925-7599

Ridgely Church is a one-story, front gabled structure with pointed-arch windows with commemorative stained glass. It is bordered by a small graveyard with handsome primitively carved stones. The present building was constructed in 1921 to replace the original church founded by Lewis Ridgely in 1871 that was destroyed by fire. Lewis Ridgely was one of three original church trustees. Succeeding generations of Ridgelys remained active in the church and community. In order to accommodate the widening of Central Avenue in the late 1980s, the church was moved a short distance north, renovated and stabilized.

Saint Mary's Beneficial Society Hall

14825 Pratt Street

Upper Marlboro MD 20772

c. 1892 -one-story, front-gabled frame structure with entrance, porch and small box office at west gable end. For nearly a century the center of social, religious, and charitable activities of local black Catholic community; last remaining building of a group of stores and houses on Pratt Street dating from 1850 to 1930; restored as law office in 1980s.

Saint Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church

6634 St. Barnabas Road

Oxon Hill MD 20745

301-567-4433

Additional Resource

St. Paul's is thought to be he oldest black congregation in Prince George's County. The original church was constructed in 1888. In 1915, the present sanctuary, a small front gabled building with pointed arch towers and a three-story corner tower, was built. The original church was destroyed in the 1920s and replaced by a series of church additions. The church's congregation preceded the construction in 1888. Traveling clerics in the late 18th century preached to a group of freed blacks in Oxon Hill who had built their own meetinghouse. This group is believed to have a connection to the African American Methodist congregation that in 1867 acquired the land on which St. Paul's was built.

Saint Thomas Methodist Church & Cemetery

18810 Aquasco Road

Brandywine MD 20613

1911, frame meeting-house style rural chapel; Gothic arch windows with tracery. Built to replace the Reconstruction-era school/church building; focal point of local black community and best surviving example of its type.

Site of Columbia Air Center

Croom Airport Road

Upper Marlboro MD 20772

301-627-6074

Additional Resource

In 1941, aviation history was made when the first black owned and operated airfield in the state of Maryland was licensed on the site at the end of Croom Airport Road. John W. Greene Jr., a pioneer in black aviation, was instrumental in developing the airfield in the state of Maryland which was originally called Riverside Field. It was occupied by the U.S. Navy during World War II and used for training missions. After the war, Greene reopened the airfield as Columbia Air Center. It offered a flying school, charter services, and facilities for major and minor repairs. The first black Civil Air Patrol squadron in the Washington, D.C. area, called the Columbia Squadron, was formed here. The site is located within Patuxent River Park which is owned anad operated by The Maryland-National Park and Planning Commission. This site is currently used for agricultural purposes and none of the buildings or runways that once stood on the site are extant; interpretive signage tells the story of the historic airport and provides a map of the airfield when it was in use.

Site of Northampton

10900 block Lake Arbor Way

Mitchellville MD 20721

18th and 19th centuries, site includes foundations of 18th-century Northampton plantation house, and ruins of one frame and one brick two-family slave quarter Archaeological site of unique importance, particularly for the early 19th century brick quarter, one of only three known brick quarters in Southern Maryland, owned by M-NCPPC.

St. Mark's Methodist Episcopal Church

601 8th Street

Laurel MD 20707

301-776-8885

Additional Resource

Since 1921, St. Mark's Methodist Episcopal Church has served as a landmark within the city of Laurel. The history of the congregation dates back to 1891 when James Hebron and two other black Methodists purchased the land for the church. The frame of the church sat across the street from the Laurel Colored School, which was constructed in 1884. St. Mark's has served an active congregation since it's founding, and represents the religious center for a long-standing black community.

Wilmer's Park

15710 Brandywine Road

Brandywine MD 20613

301-751-5074

Additional Resource

1947-1970; 80-acre parcel containing the ruins of a dance hall, motel, ranch house, covered stage, baseball and football fields. As a major stop on the Chitlin Circuit, Wilmer’s Park opened its doors to African-American musicians, entertainers, athletes and fans from the early 1950s through the late 1960s; Arthur Wilmer used his experience and connections developed as the owner of a night club in Washington, D. C. to bring both popular acts and up-and-coming performers to rural Prince George’s County; the bandstand at Wilmer’s Park showcased everyone from Duke Ellington and Otis Redding to the Temptations, Patti La Belle, and a young Stevie Wonder; the former tobacco farm played an important role in exposing emerging musicians to local African Americans during a time of segregation.

Woodville School

21500 Aquasco Road

Aquasco MD 20608

Additional Resource

1934, one-story frame schoolhouse with three classrooms built to serve black children in the Woodville/Aquasco area. The school house was sold by auction in 1956 to the Knights of St. John’s Commandery #373 for use as its headquarters.

Special activities, programs, and events are held at our Historic sites throughout the year. Click here for our Calendar of Events.

Photos are courtesy of their respective websites.