Greenmanville: Investigating the Underground Railroad and Social Reform in a New England Maritime Community

FAIN: BP-50187-10

Mystic Seaport Museum (Mystic, CT 06355-1946)
Elysa Engelman (Project Director: August 2009 to August 2012)

Planning for a reinterpretation of the George Greenman house and the Seventh Day Baptist Church in Greenmanville, a neighborhood of Mystic, Connecticut.

Mystic Seaport requests $38,030 planning grant over one year (Apr 2010 - Mar 2011) for the proposed re-interpretation of two historic structures connected with the community of Greenmanville. This once thriving 19th-century maritime community occupied the riverfront property where Mystic Seaport is now located. The Greenmanville Seventh Day Baptist Church (1851) and George Greenman House (1839) are significant places in the economic, religious, social, and political history of this community, but their stories have never been fully told to the public. The proposed planning phase will entail: further content and best-practices research trips to local, regional, and national archives and museums; formative evaluation focus groups; scholarly charrettes; and internal workshops with project team members. This work will allow us to strengthen the supporting evidence for our stories and test our plans with a range of intended audiences. The Museum proposes a cost sharing of $38,472.