Off the Press RBHY Museum News & Info
Spirits soared - along with the heat! - in Freedmen's Town on June 19, as RBHY and Shell Black Network Group (SBNG) joined forces to create a community-wide activity honoring Juneteenth - a holiday to celebrate the announcement of freedom form slavery in Texas. Congressman Al Edwards made Juneteenth a state holiday which is now being recognized nationwide. RBHY, U of H, HCC, the Urban League Guild, area churches, SBNG, and Houston Archaeological Society members donated over 300 volunteer hours to provide a variety of activities for visitors from far and near. Activities included:
*Hands-on archaeology at the Yates House for kids of all ages. Young children learned to screen artifacts, were given "Junior Archaeology Steward"certificates.
*Lectures by the Buffalo Soldiers, historians, archaeologists, and a poet were held at three neighborhood churches.
*1900's wallpaper style hand printing demonstrations by Suzanne Manns, Dean of Faculty at Glassel School of Art.
*Art exhibitions by Charles Criner and Mosheh Adamu including a John Biggers' Print)
*Antique dolls loaned by Betty Taylor Thompson, antique chairs, and a tricycle exhibit by Dr. Sarah Trotty, Celia Anderson, and Catherine Roberts.
*A raffle of Gift Baskets, plants and toys, book sales, music, and more?
*St. James United Methodist Church and Mt. Horeb Missionary Baptist Church provided delicious grilled burgers, hot dogs, salads, and cold drinks made possible, in part, by a generous donation by Fiesta Market.
* New Zion Temple Missionary Church hosted a film series, as well as, Tiffany Gilbert's "Praise and Grace" dancers. Mt. Horeb also provided shuttle transport to and from the various venues.
By, Debra B. Sloan, RBHY historical researcher and advisory board member
Through generous grants from Houston Endowment, Clare Fleming Sprunt, and pro-bono legal services provided by Marvin Nathan and J.B. Cirensione, the National Register Home of Reverend Ned P. Pullum has been purchased by the Rutherford B.H. Yates Museum, Inc. It is located at 1319 Andrews in the National Historic District of Freedmen’s Town, and has recently received a National Historic Places plaque from the Texas Historical Commission.
Pullum paid $1000.00 for the site of his six-room home. The home was built between 1898 and the early 1900’s, and suggest a Colonial Revival style with an older Victorian flair. The home has an L-shaped design and features a wrap-around front porch, metal finials on the roof, gingerbread mill work, Doric porch columns and bay windows. A previous owner of the home during 1930's and 1940's, remembered that the doors inside the house had transoms with Tiffany style leaded glass windows, a sliding door between the living area and dining room, and a fireplace.
According to the 1900 Harris County census, Ned P. Pullum was born in Pickensville, Alabama in 1862. He came to Texas in 1895 and pastured at Antioch Baptists Church in Beaumont, Bethel Baptist Church, and Friendship Baptist Church in Freedmen’s Town. He opened his own businesses: People’s Pride Shoe Repair and Pullum Brick Yards. He also acquired several real estate properties in Freedmen’s Town that were very profitable. He died in 1927 from acute indigestion leaving behind his wife, Emma, son, Edward and daughter, Mary.
Contributions of leaders, businessmen and area professionals such as Rev. Ned Pullum added to the educational fabric of this only remaining former slave and freedmen's community in the United States.
The R.B.H. Yates Museum is dedicated to preservation of the cultural history, brick streets, archaeology, and architecture of the early residents of Freedmen’s Town.
Debra B. Sloan, all rights reserved, with thanks to consulting historians Mrs. Willie Lee Gay and Mrs. Vivian Seals.
The weather was crisp and clear on Martin Luther King Day 2004, as the RBHY Board and 90 volunteers from the Shell SERVE organization hosted a beautification project for the Historic District. The day began at the Gregory Lincoln School Auditorium, as Pastor Samuel H. Smith of Mt. Horeb Missionary Baptists Church shared in the rich history of the role the churches played in the building of a new life after slavery. RBHY and Shell volunteers met local families and learned about archaeology and historic architecture during a long but positive working day.
When the National District of Freedmen’s Town was designated in 1984, there were 530 Contributing National Register structures. Now there are fewer than 20. In order to recreate a visual sense of the historic landscape, architecture student interns Chris Cooper, Xavier Spencer, and Alex John (under the guidance of the Prairie View A&M University College of Architecture, and Dr. Joseph Goldman and Monica Rokicki of the International Center for the Solution of Environmental Problems (ICSEP) researched and constructed a historically correct replica of a portion of the 40-block National Historic District of Freedmen’s Town.
Using detailed historical research, painstaking measurements, and professional architectural model-making techniques, this model was completed and subsequently exhibited at the Museum of Printing History, at Prairie View A & M University, and will be shown at Chase Bank in downtown Houston in the near future. This precise, beautiful architectural model is an excellent visual interpretation of the fine urban planning aesthetic, as well as the construction skills of the founding families when they created their community in mid 1800. The interns also began architectural documentation of the Rev. Pullum house in preparation for its restoration.
This Preservation/Architecture Internship was made possible through generous grants from the John D. McGovern Fund, the Albert and Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation, and the Bayer Corporation.
Since, our first visit to Former Mayor Lee Brown in September 2002, RBHY has done considerable planning for the restoration of the History Gregory School, which will serve as an anchor in the RBHY 3 Project - “Educational and Cultural Park Corridor” Master Plan. The Historic Gregory School will be an archaeology site for research, archaeology archives, and exhibitions, with programs of music, art, and history as “hands-on’ activities. Plans include the restoration of the historic brick streets and trolley in order to create an educational corridor linking the Historic Gregory School with the downtown theatre district, the RBHYates’ Museum Houses, the new High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) and the Gregory-Lincoln Arts Magnet Academy. Your help is need before the remaining historic resources are destroyed. The “Educational and Cultural Park Corridor” Plan will cost $24 million.
