Middletown (3)

1. Cross Street African Methodist Episcopal,
Zion Church 160 Cross Street

This is not the easiest joint to find – it’s across the street from the big Wesleyan gym.

This church originated in 1823, although a building was not erected until 1830 under the leadership of Jeheil Beman. Beman, the son of a Revolutionary War soldier and the father of Amos Beman (see Dixwell Avenue Congregational Church, New Haven), led the congregation in the antislavery cause. The church became known as the Freedom Church for its abolitionist activity. Women of the church, under the leadership of Clarissa Beman, created one of the first women’s abolitionist societies, known as the Colored Female Anti-Slavery Society of Middletown. Its goal was not only to bring an end to slavery, but also to improve the condition of free African Americans. The church was rebuilt in 1867, was moved about a quarter mile in the 1920s, and underwent renovation in 1978.

It’s also part of the Middletown Heritage Tour. CTMQ Trek here

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2. Leverett Beman Historic District,
Cross and Vine Streets

Yeah, okay… I’m not sure how I’m to take a picture of a “District.” So I’ll grab a satellite image. I can report I drove all around here looking for that church.

The first known residential subdivision in the state, 1847, to have been laid out by a free black man for black homeowners, the Leverett Beman Historic District occupies a narrow triangle of almost five acres. The neighborhood today consists of 18 houses built between c. 1840 and 1959 and includes the Cross Street A.M.E. Zion Church.

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3. West Burying Ground (Washington Street Cemetery),
Washington and Vine Streets

Middletown is crazy. Across the street from this cemetery is the Indian Hill cemetery which is on the Middletown Heritage Trail (CTMQ visit here!). And right next to it is the Washington Green – also part of that trail (CTMQ Visit here!). But thanks to the Freedom Trail folks for hooking me up with the handy dandy marker as seen here.

To the rear of this cemetery are the graves of local African Americans, including Fanny Beman, the mother of Amos Beman, one of Connecticut’s best known African American civil rights leaders of the nineteenth century. There are also graves here of men who fought in the Connecticut Twenty-Ninth Regiment and other African American units of the Civil War. Among them is James Powers, who is listed on the Civil War monument located on the green at South Main Street near the Benjamin Douglas House.

Of course, the Civil War Monument is on the Middletown Trail and the Benjamin Douglas House is part of the Underground Railroad Trail. You can see how I had fun in Middletown one day, huh?

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