Freedman's Town named as Houston's first Heritage District

Houston Freedmen's Town Conservancy/Facebook

HOUSTON, TX — Mayor Sylvester Turner and Houston City Council have named Houston Fourth Ward’s Freedmen’s Town as Houston’s first heritage district.

Heritage districts aim to maintain civic and cultural heritage by protecting character-defining elements within neighborhoods, highlighting the significant achievements and contributions of the community, and promoting neighborhood stability.

Mayor Turner expressed his excitement in inaugurate Freedmen’s Town as Houston’s first heritage district and gratitude towards the Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy as the supporting organization to give their effort and support to the heritage district’s development and make impactful movements across the community in the city.

The mission of the Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy is to preserve the historical legacy of Freedmen’s Town and inspire the community through its cultural and historical heritage.

The city will enable approved organizations to protect, restore, or install specific elements within the districts such as brick, paved streets, curbs, driveways, sidewalks and walkways, signage and markers, public art, vegetation, and trees in the city’s public right-of-way.

The designation doesn’t provide city funding and doesn’t apply to private property.

Eileen Lawal, Freedmen’s Town Conservancy Board President, stated that the heritage district designation would benefit in delivering Freedmen’s Town history to the society of Houston. “This heritage district designation will infuse desperately needed energy and assist the Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy to raise capital to protect, preserve, educate, and engage Houston and the world in ‘Telling the Story of Freedom’ in Freedmen’s Town.”

Freedmen’s Town is registered on the National Register of Historic Places. There are several locations that UNESCO has designated as a “Site of memory associated with the Slave Route Project” including the Rutherford B.H. Yates Museum, Bethel Park, Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, and the African American Library at the Gregory School.

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