*Rutherford B. H. Yates Museum, Inc.

Freedmen’s Town--one of the most endangered, post-Civil War, National Register Historic Districts of its kind in the U.S., was founded by previously enslaved peoples and their descendants immediately after Emancipation in 1865. Emancipated slaves first settled in tents and shanties on the banks of Buffalo Bayou, swampy land no one else wanted. Soon, the new settlers — many of whom were skilled stone masons and carpenters — had built homes, businesses and brick churches and paved the streets with bricks they forged themselves. For decades, Freedmen's Town was the epicenter of Houston's African-American community, a thriving enclave of professionals, educators and businessmen. But the Depression caused homeowners to lose their properties. In 1984, Freedmen's Town was designated a historic district in the National Register of Historic Places.