The Mary & Eliza Freeman Center’s genesis lies in visioning workshops and charrettes conducted by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Department of Regional Planning and Landscape Architecture in 2008 and 2009. The charrettes were funded by Action for Bridgeport Community Development (former owners of the Freeman Houses), the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the CT Trust for Historic Preservation. Community stakeholders asked that a center for history and culture be established, exemplified at that time by the Anacostia Community Museum in Washington, DC and Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn, New York. The original Freeman Center board of directors was representative of the coalition that saved the houses from demolition in 2009. It was out of the widespread and diverse movement to save the Freeman Houses from demolition by the City that the Freeman Center was born.
Photo by Barbara Loss
Photo by Barbara Loss