08/10/2024
🌟 Gather Place Museum: Preserving Yardley's Historic African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church Legacy 🌟We are thrilled to share a significant update from the Generational Voices™ Project! This groundbreaking initiative shines a light on the often-overlooked contributions of Yardley Borough's African American community, stretching back to the town's Quaker roots in 1682. Through this project, we have captured invaluable memories and stories that reveal the deep and enduring impact of these residents on Yardley's history.
This spring, in May 2024, we filmed a series of fourteen powerful video-recorded focus group interviews at the Historic African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church of Yardley Borough, now home to Gather Place Museum. These interviews, featuring community members aged 60 to 100, provide a rich tapestry of personal narratives, photos, and documents that paint a vivid picture of the past. Each story contributes a unique voice to the collective memory of Yardley Borough's African American history.
Currently, these recordings are safely archived on a secure Gather Place Museum software portal. For those eager to dive into these narratives, access is available by invitation only for an in-person viewing experience at the museum. But don’t worry—there’s more to come! We're working on exciting plans for a public reveal later this year, where everyone will have the chance to engage with these treasured stories.
This important work is made possible through the support of the Lilly Endowment Inc., and funding from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The Gather Place Museum itself is a cornerstone of Yardley's rich history. The Historic African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, where the museum is housed, has deep roots in the community, tracing back to the village’s founding by Quaker William Yeardley in 1682. The property, once known as the Boatyard lot, it later housed a hay press barn owned by the Eastburn family and served as a gathering place for African American worshippers as early as 1817. This site, affectionately called the "Free Peoples Church" and later "The Colored Church," was integral to Yardley’s Underground Railroad activities.
In July 2022, Shirley Lee Corsey, a third-generation Yardley Borough resident, became the legal conservator of this historic landmark. Originally built in 1877 by African American AME congregants from Trenton, NJ, the church now serves as the headquarters for Gather Place, a non-profit dedicated to bringing history to life. The church's inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places highlights its vital role in preserving Yardley’s legacy.
CHECK OUT OUR FALL 2024 PROGRAMS HERE
https://gatherplace.org/civil-war-program| https://gatherplace.org/underground-rr-1
GATHER PLACE MUSEUM - "We bring history to life!"