Africatown’s story as a community founded by the survivors of the last slave ship to enter the United States will have a new showcase inside a “heritage house” that will be constructed within the heart of the north Mobile community.
A $1.3 million contract to build the approximately 5,000-square-foot Africatown Heritage House and an accompany memorial garden was approved by the Mobile County Commission Monday. The construction contract was awarded to Mobile-based Hughes Plumbing & Utility Contractors, which is operated by Preston Hughes III, son of one of the first African Americans to be licensed as a Master Plumber in Alabama.
The Heritage House, which is essentially a museum dedicated to telling Africatown’s complex story, is viewed as one of the earliest projects within a community that public officials and historians believe is primed for a renaissance following the 2019 discovery of the hull of the slave ship Clotilda.
“This is an exciting time,” Mobile County Commissioner Merceria Ludgood said. “We know it’s taken a while to get there but we are almost there. We hope the entire community feels that this is their asset. The Africatown story is really a Mobile story.”
The project was made possible by an additional $700,000 in tax money that Ludgood diverted from her district’s capital improvement plan to pay for an uptick in construction costs. The overall costs are more than double the initial $600,000 cost estimate that was originally applied to the project.
Ludgood said the increase in the price for construction material and the addition of a memorial garden led to the higher price tag. The project is also being financed with $250,000 from the city of Mobile and $75,000 by the Alabama Power Foundation.
“I never thought (the overall costs) would be around $500,000,” said Ludgood. “I thought we’d be more in the $750,000 to $800,000 range. We are working in an environment right now where the costs of everything has gone through the roof. It’s happening on all our bids. Things are coming in higher than anticipated.”
She said no other projects had to be cut to accommodate the additional expense, noting that she had been waiting to save on a “big project” like the Heritage House.
“It was money that was already in that account, and I knew I had a big project out there waiting,” said Ludgood. “I did not obligate it for anything else.”
The Heritage House is viewed as among the early projects to kickstart tourism and research in and around Africatown after a hull of the slave ship Clotilda was discovered in 2019. Groundbreaking for the house adjacent to the Mobile County Training School – also founded by the descendants of the Clotilda – will take place within the next month. Construction is anticipated to wrap up by July, at which time the History Museum of Mobile will need about two weeks to install Clotilda artifacts and displays aimed at telling the community’s history. The Alabama Historical Commission, which is leading preservation efforts for the Clotilda, is also involved in the project.
Mobile County Commissioner Merceria Ludgood speaks during a news conference on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019, at the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce in Mobile, Ala. (John Sharp/jsharp@al.com).
Ludgood said the Heritage House could be open to the public by early August.
“This will be a place to go and see the story (of Africatown) including the (Clotilda) artifacts,” Ludgood said.
Anderson Flen, founder of the Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation – an umbrella organization for the entire community when it comes to overseeing all aspects with the discovery of the Clotilda and the developments associated with telling Africatown’s story – said the Heritage House’s importance is that it represents a project that can be completed soon and “will help share the (community’s) story in a very positive way.”
“I think some people realize the potential,” said Flen. “It’s like telling a child that there is a party but until there is ice cream and cake, there is no party taking place. The entities benefitting from it need to see something. That community has been neglected for so long. Hopefully they will begin to see something.”
The Heritage House’s development is part of a heightened focus of a community that has struggled for decades with poverty and pollution from the neighboring industrial plants along the Mobile River.
The focus includes activity in recent weeks. Researchers with the University of South Alabama are currently examining land across from the Old Plateau Cemetery to assess whether any graves are on the site. The property is coveted for a future $3.95 million Welcome Center that is planned for construction within the next three years.
Related content: Heat on Mobile: How ’60 Minutes’ episode on Africatown pushes city to lure visitors
The Mobile City Council approved a $58,802 contract with USA to conduct the cultural resources study of the property that is expected to last 120 days. The property assessment will include, among other things, an oral history project that reviews its use before the 1940s.
Separately, a team of six professors with the Georgia-based Savannah College of Art and Design visited the community on Friday and met with local activists to discuss the history of the region as part of the development of an “immersive” water and land tour that could be offered to the public later this year. Teams of students and professors have interacted with Africatown community activists and others during Zoom meetings in recent weeks as part of an ongoing effort that will also include the production of a 15-20-minute documentary of Africatown. The documentary is expected to be wrapped up by late May.
Dave Clark, president & CEO with Visit Mobile, the tourism arm of the city, said it’s important that the community’s story is told in a factual way before tourism activity begins.
“We have to do this right,” said Dave Clark, president & CEO with Visit Mobile, the tourism arm for the city. “I think as long as the story script is accurate and it satisfies the Africatown (community) leadership and historians, that is the first element that has to be right before anything can start. Once the story is right, then everything can really begin.”
He added, “The story is the most time-consuming piece in getting the truth out and how you tell the story to different age groups. It has to be scripted to different age groups.”
The progress comes at a time of improved communication between the city and Africatown community members, according to Darron Patterson, president of the Clotilda Descendants Association which involves six families of direct descendants of the vessel. Patterson, last month, expressed concerns about a general distrust that exists in the community over outside groups aiming to profit off the Clotilda’s discovery.
The distrust is generational and is heightened from the lack of communication with the descendants of Timothy Meaher, the rich white businessman who owned the Clotilda and was responsible in its illegal voyage into the United States. The Meaher family still owns property in Africatown but has declined to publicly communicate about the discovery of the slave ship since the hull was found in May 2019.
The Africatown community has also battled decades of industrial pollution and adverse public health conditions due to paper mills and chemical plants nearby.
“I think there has been an effort to make sure we are aware of things that are going on around us,” said Patterson. “I’ve noticed a difference in the way that we are communicated with now.”
He added, “We need to make sure we stay on track and that we remember the story is about Africatown and we’re not here to make sure that people who got wealthy years ago continue to get wealthy again off our story.”
Related content: Clotilda, Africatown efforts poised to move forward
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In Africatown, the found ship Clotilda ignites hope, validates heritage
Clotilda found in Alabama: What’s next for wrecked schooner? What does it mean for Africatown?
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