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Freeman Center for History and Community.” With community rallies, gained support from the CT

Humanities and the CT Trust for Historic Preservation, for a span of a few years, the future for the

Freeman Houses looked bright.

However, even with a launched “Go Fund Me” and grants from organizations, not much has

been done for the site. The most recent news about houses was from National Trust for Historic

Preservation when the houses were listed on 2018’s “America’s 11 Most Endangered Places.” The

article about the homes was shared on The Mary and Eliza Freeman Center’s webpage and appeared

across several Connecticut news articles, but there was no further mention of what to do with the site

or what the list did, other than bring it again to the public’s attention.

There have been efforts to push the project forward toward research and restoration. CT

Humanities awarded a $9,999 “capacity grant” which plans to restore and preserve digitally the

records of the site in order to bring it forward to the public. The Mary and Eliza Freeman Center

began a “Go Fund Me” with the announcement of the houses appearing on the “11 Most Endangered

Places” list for 2018, with a goal of raising $10,000, but has not even reached 20% of that goal in 9

months. The most substantial financial support has come from the National Trust for Historic

Preservation with the inaugural round of the “African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund,”

totaling $50,000 (“Saving Bridgeport’s,” 2018.).

Donations raised as of 4/20/19 – photo from GoFundMe

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