The African-American community in Cambridge has a long, rich, and fruitful history. The roots of this community, much like the rest of the United States, are in the institution of slavery, which brought Black people from Africa and the Caribbean to New England soon after the Puritans settled. The small Black population of Cambridge became free in 1783, when the Supreme Court of Massachusetts decided to end legal chattel slavery in the state. This measure, combined with the general movement of southern Black people to the North in the 19th century and the attractive integrated school system, brought many Black families to Cambridge, expanding the African-American community. Over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth century, Cambridge saw a great variety of prominent African-American activists, officials, and leaders. Coming from all over America, these figures have contributed to the growth and empowerment of the Black communities in Cambridge, the United States, and even the entire world.
Cover of African American Heritage Trail, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2000)
We at the Cambridge Historical Commission invite you to explore the inspiring and unique stories of twenty of Cambridge’s most important Black leaders through our informational booklet, African American Heritage Trail, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2000), an accompanying text to our African American History Trail.
Selections from African American Heritage Trail, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2000), featuring entries of Pauline Hopkins and Harriet A. Jacobs.
Here, you’ll meet figures like Maria Louise Baldwin, headmaster of the Agassiz Grammar School in Cambridge and the first African American to hold such a position in the North. You’ll also learn about William Wells Brown, an escaped slave who became the first African American novelist, and Alberta V. Scott, the first African American graduate of Radcliffe College. With the aid of this guide, you can hear about and visit the locations where these abolitionists, authors, educators, and office holders lived, worked, and expanded their lives in Cambridge from 1840 to 1940. The guide contains the complete text of each historical marker, a map with key, and a brief history of African Americans in Cambridge.
Select pages from African American Heritage Trail, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2000) showing locations associated with featured historical figures.
We would like to call your attention to an article recently written by researcher and member of the Cambridge Black History Project, Leslie Brunetta. In her piece “A Subject of Unique Interest: Mary Freeman Heuston Lewis and William Dean Howells” Brunetta focuses on an obscure essay by Howells, a white writer later known as the Dean of American Letters. Brunetta writes:
Howells published “Mrs. Johnson” in The Atlantic in 1868. “Mrs. Johnson” was the pseudonym Howells gave to his family’s Black housekeeper, Mary Lewis (1816-1868), whom he called “a subject of unique interest.” But it seems neither Howells nor his wife fully understood just how uniquely interesting Mary Lewis was.”
The Howells house at 41 Sacramento Street in Cambridge. Copyright 2025 Peter Loftus.
Brunetta notes that W.D. Howells and his wife, Elinor Mead Howells (1837-1910), moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1866 as Howells took up his position as assistant editor at The Atlantic. “Mrs. Johnson,” also the first essay in Suburban Sketches, published in 1871, relates the history of the Howells’ hiring of Mary Lewis and their increasing familiarity with each other.”
William Dean Howells, “Mrs. Johnson,” The Atlantic (January, 1868), 97-106.
In this article, Brunetta explores the questions of: what was life like for someone in Mary Lewis’ situation, that is, a well-educated Black woman with close family ties, married to an entrepreneurial intellectual activist, mother of a large family, living in New England? How did she see the world?
Perhaps not as well-known as other prominent members of the Black community in Cambridge in the 19th century is Reverend Henry Buckner (c.1832 Virginia – 1893 Worcester, Mass). Reverend Buckner founded what became the first African American church in Cambridge. It all began in 1870 when he and a group of his like-minded friends met for prayer in his living room at #32 Hastings Street. In 1873, the group was associated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and was subsequently known as the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church. Note that the church website lists it as St. Paul Church—singular—though it is inevitably referred to as plural: St. Paul’s.
Buckner was born in Virginia around 1830. Given the date and location of his birth, it is likely that Buckner was born into enslavement. And, given his name, it is possible that the Buckner family of Virginia were Henry’s enslavers. Henry’s wife, Georgiana Watters, was also born in Virginia around 1830. Her death was noted in the Cambridge Press on February 23, 1889. Five months later, Buckner married Mary P. Mingo (b. 1844 in Virginia). This was both Henry and Mary’s second marriage. Their marriage document lists Henry’s mother as Ann Killis; Mary’ Mingo’s parents were Isaac and Sarah Watters.
Henry Buckner first appears in Cambridge in the 1870 Census, listing him as a blacksmith living in a predominately Black neighborhood (street unnamed). The value of his real estate was an impressive $2000—valued around $40,000 in today’s currency. Henry was not listed in the 1869 Cambridge Directory. The 1872 Directory lists him living at #32R Hastings Street, which ran between Moore St and Portland St in East Cambridge. His occupation was listed as “laborer” until 1892 when he was listed as “Rev. Henry Buckner.”
City Directory 1879
After 1893, Cambridge changed its street numbering system, and the Buckner’s home was henceforth listed as #70. You can see #70 on the map below just a few doors down from the St. Paul A.M.E. at the corner of Hastings and Portland Streets. Hastings St was closed by 1960, and today the Draper Labs garage stands on church’s former site.
Atlas of the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts by G.W. Bromley and Co., 1894 (detail)
In 1900, the current pastor of the Church, Rev. W. H. Burrell, wrote an article for the Cambridge Chronicleabout the founding of St. Paul A.M.E.
Cambridge Chronicle February 3, 1900
The article continues:
“The little society rapidly grew to such proportions that it was soon found necessary to secure a more commodious place of worship, and after selecting a suitable location, leased of Mr. James C. Davis (who afterward became a staunch friend of this struggling society) the lot of land corner Portland and Hastings streets, on which the church building now stands, and erected the St. Paul’s A. M. E. church, which for twenty-four years, has stood battling for the right, and which for many years was the only place of worship of the colored people in the city of Cambridge…”
Exterior view of Wood Memorial Church, later St Paul A.M.E., at 50 Portland St (later 98 Portland), no date (CHC collections)
In 1899, Pastor Burrell had begun a remodeling drive. The article concluded with a touching appeal for funds:
In 1882, Buckner represented his church at the first meeting of “colored temperance organizations of Cambridge and Boston” and was named temporary chairman of the group:
Boston Globe August 23, 1882
Of course, Buckner regularly attended the New England Conference of the A.M.E. Church at Newport, Worcester and other locations. In 1890, at the Conference in Worcester, Mass, Buckner’s transfer to Westfield, Mass was announced. The Pittsfield papers noted that Buckner had served there in 1884 and 1885, noting that in January of 1885 he was called back to Cambridge “on account of his wife’s sickness.”
The June 17, 1890 edition of the Boston Globe noted that Buckner was again transferred to Westfield. Several days earlier, on June 14, he had been referred to as a “supernumerary” in the Worcester Daily Spy. The following year, in June of 1891, he opened the devotional exercises at the morning session of the A.M.E. conference in Newport, Rhode Island (Boston Globe, June 11, 1891).
View of Wood Memorial Church at 31 Austin St (now Bishop Allen Drive) as published in Cambridge Illustrated, ca. 1889-1893
It is difficult to locate any information about Rev. Buckner after 1891. A clue as to his death may be seen in the 1893 City Directory under his last name. The only Buckner listed is “Buckner Henry Mrs house 70 Hastings.” Women were generally listed this way only after their husbands were deceased. Meanwhile, the church Henry had founded moved to the corner of Columbia Ave and Austin St in Cambridge after the congregation outgrew their former building at the corner of Portland and Hastings Street. In 1920, the church purchased the Wood Memorial Church on Austin Street (now Bishop Allen Drive).
Postcard showing Wood Memorial Church c. 1910. (CHC collections)
In 1974, Austin Street was renamed Bishop Allen Drive, after the founder of the A.M.E. Church in America. A little over two centuries earlier, in 1784, Richard Allen had founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia.
Richard Allen: Image Encyclopedia Britannica
Also in 1974, St. Paul A.M.E. opened the Henry Buckner School at 85 Bishop Allen Drive with the mission to provide care for toddlers, pre-school learning, and kindergarten. So, though we don’t know exactly when the Rev. Henry Buckner passed on, his memory lives on forever in this school.
The St Paul A.M.E. Church at 37 Bishop Allen Drive as photographed by Christopher Hail ca. 1985.
Today’s post was written by Kathleen M. Fox
SOURCES
Cambridge Public Library Newspapers and City Directories
This weekend organizations across Cambridge are hosting celebrations and commemorations for Juneteenth. 2022 marks only the second year that Juneteenth has been recognized as a Federal holiday, but what is Juneteenth and why does it matter? In 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order declaring all enslaved people held in confederate states free. However, it wasn’t until June 19th of 1865 that federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce and enforce their release. The day is now celebrated as the end of slavery in the United States, though there is still much left to be done. It’s a day to uplift African American voices, celebrate African American joy, and honor those who were robbed of their freedom and made to endure the inhumanity of American slavery. If you haven’t already made your own celebratory and/or commemorative plans, consider joining any of these many events happening right in our own neighborhood.
6/16 @ 12:15-1:30 pm Come to Joan Lorentz Park, 449 Broadway to catch a reggae performance by the Mystic Jammers
6/18 12-9:00 pm Catch a full day of activities from the Margaret Fuller House at 155 Harvard St. including yoga, a presentation on Joy in a historic Black Church in Cambridgeport by the Black History in Action for Cambridgeport (BHAC), and a Black Business Fair. They’ll be ending the evening with biking and skating at Hoyt Field.
6/18 @ 12-2:00 pm The Central Square Branch of the Cambridge Public Library will be hosting a Juneteenth celebration for all ages. There will be storytelling, music from the Albino Mbie Band, cupcakes, sidewalk chalk, and crafts. Visit the CPL events page for more details.
6/19 @ 3 pm The Cambridge Black History Project will be meeting at the Old Burying Ground at the intersection of Massachusetts Ave & Garden Street to honor and commemorate two African Americans buried there. Guests are welcomed to stand outside the gate to witness the ceremony.
6/19 @ 7:00 pm The Longfellow House and Museum of African American History have partnered to host a poetry reading and film screening of Jubilee Juneteenth and the Thirteenth. Learn more and register here.
6/20 @ 9-12:00 pm The Cambridge Families of Color Coalition and Starlight are hosting a parade at City Hall.
