THE STORY OF A COMMUNITY: Among the 98 illustrations in Adam Welch’s book about the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood is this photo of Booker T. Washington’s visit to Princeton thought to have been taken in 1914 at 20 Green Street. The photo, which has been colorized, comes from the collection of the Historical Society of Princeton.
By Anne Levin
Adam Welch never intended to write a book. But once he started digging into the history of the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood, Welch, who is the executive director of the Arts Council of Princeton (ACP), was hooked.
“You research this tentacle, and then there’s another one — all these different spokes,” he said about The Witherspoon-Jackson Neighborhood: How One Community Changed Princeton, the 172-page volume he has written and designed. “There is all of this uncovering of information. It sort of fast-forwards in each chapter to the people who are on the street now.”
The book, which has a foreword by Princeton Councilman and longtime neighborhood resident Leighton Newlin, makes its official debut on Friday, June 20 at a special reception, reading, and open mic at the Arts Council from 6-8 p.m. All proceeds from its sale ($65-$75) support the ACP, the Historical Society of Princeton, and the Witherspoon-Jackson Historical and Cultural Society. U.S. Sen. Andy Kim is scheduled to speak at the event, which will also launch two books about the neighborhood by poet ACP trustee Gregory Smith. All are invited.
Welch’s book came about after he was asked to join the board of the Witherspoon-Jackson Historical and Cultural Society.
“Before that, I wasn’t really focused on the history of the neighborhood,” he said. “I was only interested in how it affected the Arts Council, which is at Witherspoon Street and Paul Robeson Place,” he said. “But then we started to do projects like the Romus Broadway photo exhibition, and others that are about the history of the neighborhood. And I became more and more involved in its past.”
The book is an expansion of a “zine,” a 4-by-6-inch publication that fits in a pocket, that Welch recently created about the neighborhood.
“I started to expand on the information I had gathered for the zine,” he said. “I hired an editor. And lo and behold, here is this book that is jam-packed with interesting little tidbits about the neighborhood, the town, and the University — good and bad. But by and large, it’s positive.”
In a written statement about the book, Welch said that what started as a weekend project in support of the Arts Council and the Witherspoon-Jackson Historical and Cultural Society “to spread the word about Princeton’s Black community turned into an all-encompassing, year-long mission to tell the story of a community within Princeton that is often left unacknowledged and unrecognized, or so I thought.”
Most books about Princeton history focus on the University, Princeton Theological Seminary, and the Institute for Advanced Study. Those that touch on the Black community tend to be about the Mt. Pisgah African Methodist Episcopal and the Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church or Betsey Stockton and James Collins Johnson — all for good reason because these institutions and individuals were important.
“These are the expected faces of the community,” Welch’s statement reads. “But if you’re curious about what other under-told stories there are in this history, this is for you.”
Unlike previous publications written about Witherspoon-Jackson, Welch’s book is indexed. “I’m proud of that,” he said. “I’ve indexed every part of this book. Maybe it is over-indexed. But people can go back and forward and find their families. A lot of this is like a yearbook for people. This community is so passionate about the history and legacy here, so it was so interesting to go down that path with them.”
As the book took shape, Welch and Newlin were constantly conferring. “We would sometimes be up until midnight on the phone,” Welch said. “It was a great way of coming together, a great way for me to engage. I learned so much.”
Visit artscouncilofprinceton.org for information about attending the free event or ordering the book.