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Originally published in the Historic Nantucket, Vol 40, no. 3 (Fall 1992), p. 52-53

The African Meeting House on Nantucket, circa 1912

Since 1921, the African Meeting House on Nantucket had been owned by a black woman of considerable vision, Florence Higginbotham. In 1989, her son Wilhelm sold the property to the Museum of Afro American History in Boston, charging its board of directors to honor her memory and the history of African-Americans on Nantucket.

After stabilizing the building, the Museum went to work with historians on the island. In August 1991 the Museum and the Nantucket Atheneum jointly published "A Diary of the Visits of Frederick Douglass to Nantucket Island," and, with a program sponsored by the Unitarian Church, celebrated the 150th anniversary of his first visit to Nantucket. In the previous year the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities had completed a historic structures report of the Meeting House and found a vernacular architecture that reflected shipbuilders' skills of the early 1800s. A Nantucket Black Heritage Trail within the perimeter of old "Guinea" is emerging, including the home of Captain Absalom Boston.

Today an architectural model and concept plans for a restored African Meeting House propel us into the future. The prospect of a restored building by 1994 excites historians, preservationists, business people, community leaders, and many citizens of Nantucket. In just over one year we raised $60,000. The goal is $600,000 to complete the restoration. The rededication of the African Meeting House took place on August 8,1992.

 

Monica Fairbairn, Executive Director Museum of Afro American History, Boston