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Originally published in the Historic Nantucket, Vol 50, no. 1 (Winter 2001), p. 23

The African Meeting House
by Helen Seager

IT TOOK THE MUSEUM OF AFRO AMERICAN history ten years from its 1989 acquisition of the African Meeting House on Nantucket to realize the restoration of the building. During that decade, numerous supporters — visitors, volunteers, donors, workers, passersby — were deeply affected by the broad spiritual importance of the project.

One of the project's early island advocates was the Nantucket Interfaith Council, which hosted the new owners' introduction to the island and supported their restoration efforts. The council's frequent financial and other contributions are a testimony to its commitment to the project. The public also responded with enthusiasm to efforts by the museum and Friends of the African Meeting House to keep the restoration and related issues in the public eye. Presentations included speakers, exhibitions, lectures, the serendipitous development of an island Black Heritage trail, an archaeological dig, musical events, and benchmark ceremonies.

It is astonishing to imagine that in 1989 few people knew about Frederick Douglass's connection to the island or the importance of the maritime trades to free blacks before the Civil War. The general population of the island knew little about the abolition movement; Captain Absalom Boston; the Reverend James Crawford, whose ministry at the African Church was the longest (forty years) in the history of island churches; or even about Eunice Ross, the young woman who integrated Nantucket public schools in 1847. Few people knew of the island's black cemetery. Public events supporting the restoration project deepened the understanding of our shared heritage, enriched the island's considerable history, and inspired curiosity to learn even more.

It is no accident that the project was supported over the decade by 2,000 small donations from individuals from every walk of life; it is an inspiration that almost all of the large donations have come from African Americans on and off island. Stories from the building's past deeply touch islanders and tourists alike.

The African Meeting House was built at the comer of York and Pleasant Streets in the 1820s by the Trustees of the African Baptist Society to house a school for the island's black children. Public schools on Nantucket were not yet fully established or adequately funded. Early teachers at the Meeting House were itinerant Baptist preachers from the mainland; when there was none available, school was not in session. The first teacher, Frederick Baylies of Cape Cod, was also active in establishing schools on Martha's Vineyard and in Rhode Island. Only one early teacher that we know of, the Reverend Jacob Perry, was black.

With preachers as teachers, it was not long before a worshiping congregation was established on the Sundays of the period that school was in session. In 1848, at about the time that island schools were integrated, the Baptist congregation was revitalized with the appearance on the island of the Reverend James Crawford, a former slave from Virginia. The congregation slowly diminished following his death in 1888. The doors were closed and the building sold in the second decade of the twentieth century. For four more decades, the building was used for entirely nonspiritual activities — workshop, warehouse, garage, storage, etc. By 1989, it was in profound disrepair, with memories of its use as a church faded and its use as a school forgotten.

Twenty-first-century visitors to the restored building are awestruck when they walk into this architectural gem; its quiet simplicity takes one's breath away, its acoustics are stunning. One needn't be artistic or religious to be affected by this place, and, so far, no one claims to be so accustomed to the spirit of the building that they no longer notice.

Helen Seager is a founder and former convenor of the Friends of the African Meeting House on Nantucket.