Paul Laurence Dunbar School

Completed in 1927, the Dunbar School served as the colored high school for the predominately black Dunbar community and surrounding area. Prior to September 1925, educational opportunities for African Americans were limited to grades one through six. The masonry vernacular ...

Macedonia Baptist Church

The oldest African American church in Naples, this church was organized in 1929, and relocated to its present site in 1952. The new, Gothic-style church building was dedicated in 1954, the annex was built in 1973, and the church was ...

St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church

St. Mark was founded in the late 1880s by Punta Gorda's African American pioneer, area businessman and civic leader, Dan Smith. Smith named the church and was ordained as the first deacon. Dan Smith's wife Louisa Evans was a Baptist, ...

Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church - Punta Gorda

"Uncle Dan" Smith, a local African American religious leader, constructed a thatch-roofed hut church on this site in 1886. Several white families, including Colonel Albert W. Gilchrist, who later became governor of Florida, were in attendance at the first service. ...

The Blanchard House Museum of African American History & Culture

This 1925 house was originally built for Joseph Blanchard, a black sea captain and key member of early Punta Gorda's business community, and Minnie, his mail-order bride. Upon the death of Blanchard's last surviving daughter, African American community historian Bernice ...

The George Brown House (Private)

This property was built in 1915 by George Brown, a talented African American carpenter and local businessman, for himself and his family. The home is a monument to his second wife, Tommie.

Information provided by Florida Department of State.

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Mount Moriah Baptist Church

The last building standing from the Freemanville community, a settlement of freed slaves. Built in 1911, it still serves as a place of worship for descendants of those original settlers.

Information provided by Florida Department of State.

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St. Rita's Black History Museum

The Old Sacred Heart/St. Rita (Colored) Mission Church building, constructed in 1899, was one of the few houses of worship for black Roman Catholics in this area, and the only one left standing. Moved to this site, the building now ...

National Historic Landmark-Nightingale-Brown House

National Historic Landmark- Nightingale-Brown House

Architecturally, this is one of the finest Georgian houses in America.

In style, it summarizes and concludes that period of late Georgian architecture in Providence; in size and quality, it is distinguished even among its neighboring ...

Bethune-Volusia Beach

Educator Mary McLeod Bethune, insurance executive G. D. Rodgers of Tampa, rancher Lawrence Silas of Kissimmee and other black investors purchased this ocean-front property in the 1940s to develop a black residential resort community and recreation area.

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