MARKING HISTORY: A historical marker recognizes Lewisville Road as the home of the earliest community of people of African descent in Lawrence Township. A community ceremony unveiled the historic marker in March, a collaborative project of several community organizations. (Photo courtesy of The Lawrenceville School)
A new marker honors a Lawrence Township Black community, at the former site of Mount Pisgah A.M.E. Church, at Lewisville Road, thanks to several community schools and organizations. This past March 25, township residents gathered to unveil a historical marker recognizing Lewisville Road as the home of the earliest community of people of African descent in Lawrence Township.
The plaque stands just a few feet from the Lewisville Road entrance to The Lawrenceville School, at the former site of the Mt. Pisgah AME Church — which, as the plaque notes, “formed the center of Black community life for over a century.”
A collaborative project of the Lawrence Historical Society, the Township of Lawrence, Lawrence Neighbors Together, the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville, Lawrence Township School District, and The Lawrenceville School, the event was held on the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and was attended by community members, including descendants of the first African American families to settle along Lewisville Road.
Although the unveiling took place in March “the educational mission behind the project remains deeply relevant, and it continues to inspire conversations about community, history, and equity,” said Lisa Gillard, public relations director for The Lawrenceville School.
The Lawrenceville School will host a symposium on the history and heritage of Black residents of Lewisville Road and the surrounding area on Saturday, September 27 at 2 p.m. in the Kirby Arts Center at The Lawrenceville School and is open to the public free of charge.
One of the symposium’s highlights will be a panel discussion moderated by students from The Lawrenceville School and Lawrence High School, featuring descendants of early Lewisville Road residents. Planned speakers include Verlina Reynolds (New Jersey State Assemblywoman), the Rev. Dr. Charles Boyer, (pastor of the Greater Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church in Trenton), Patricia Farmer (Lawrence Township Mayor), Joe Ciccone (Lawrence Historical Society President), Robyn Klim (Lawrence Township Schools Superintendent), and Steve Murray (Head of The Lawrenceville School). The Lawrence High School Gospel Choir will perform.
The small village of Lewisville is Lawrence Township’s earliest African American community, according to a history found on the Lawrence Hopewell Trail website. It was “founded by former enslaved persons and their descendants from Lawrence and the surrounding townships,” it states. “They began acquiring land and small farms along this stretch of road in the 1840s. Despite difficult social and economic conditions, these pioneering families set down roots and prospered. By the 1890s, the village consisted of about a dozen houses and the Mount Pisgah African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church, a vibrant center for African American culture.”
Lewisville is named after Lewis W.R. Phillips, a former slaveholder who freed his slaves and joined the abolitionist movement in the 1820s, the website continues. He began selling small lots of land to Black people in the 1840s along what became Lewisville Road.
The Mount Pisgah A.M.E. Church is noted for its festivals and activities, in local newspapers of the time.
The plaque wording is: “The earliest community of people of African descent in Lawrence Township formed on Lewisville Road in the 1840s before the Civil War. Black and white residents lived here together. The Mt. Pisgah AME Church located near this site formed the center of Black community life for over a century.”