Dabney Hill Secures Major Grants
In 2016 Gloria Smith, a Fort Worth, Texas native, discovered her ancestral ties to Dabney Hill, a rural, self-sustaining African American Freedom Colony established by Daniel Dabney in 1887. Guided in part by Dr. Andrea Roberts, founder of the Texas Freedom Colonies Project™, Smith has committed herself to raising the visibility of her “down home” community, whose historic vernacular landscape retains a legible community core of extant structures. Featured in The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s (TCLF) thematic report and digital exhibition, Landslide 2021: Race and Space, public awareness of the extant Freedom Colony has continued to increase in recent years with the installation of a historical marker and efforts to rehabilitate the community’s Missionary Baptist church and Masonic hall. Last month the community was awarded two major grants, which will advance the rehabilitation of both structures.
On February 24th the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund at the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced that the Dabney Hill Missionary Baptist Church will receive $100,000 for structural rehabilitation. The community is one of 30 grantees selected to receive a collective eight-and-a-half million dollars, the largest collective grant award in the Trust’s Preserving Black Churches program. The community was also awarded $10,000 from the Summerlee Foundation for the rehabilitation of the Mason Hall (Ethiopian Star Lodge #308).
Reflecting on the announcements, Smith writes, "When Landslide 2021: Race and Space allowed me the opportunity to share my experience of discovering my ancestral roots in Burleson County, TX, following my retirement, I never imagined it would flourish into something so compelling. My narrative uncovered the story of a little-known Freedom Colony and cultural landscape called Dabney Hill. The awareness of a distressed historic church and equally endangered masonic lodge, built in the early nineteenth century by [the] formerly enslaved and [their] descendants, engendered unprecedented community support and partnerships. After applying for highly-competitive grants–that at every turn included endorsement letters from Charles Birnbaum and TCLF–the journey snowballed. We are grateful to announce the recent awarding of significant funding which paves the way for Dabney Hill to rehabilitate and re-open the church and lodge for descendants, the community, and future generations."
TCLF is encouraged that these groundbreaking grants will further enhance the visibility of this significant African American cultural landscape.
