Historic site in Freedmen’s Town to continue restoration efforts with new grant

In the fall, the house is expected to begin the next step of a long rehabilitation process that will transform the space into a gift shop, gallery and tour office.

Catherine Roberts, co-founder of the Yates Museum, said the site is being restored under very strict historical guidelines.

“We are restoring it at the highest level of standards and preservation to honor the family that built and lived in it,” she said. “It is a very slow and tedious process because we try to keep 80% of the original materials used in the home.”

Funding the project

Roberts said the restoration project has been underway for a while from previous grants, but recently received another round of grant funding.

The project received $100,000 from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, a national trust for historic preservation.

According to a news release July 18, the heritage fund announced $3 million in grant funding to protect and preserve 30 sites representing Black history. The foundation focused on historic sites that represent Black American life through modern architecture, education, sports or Black women’s achievements, according to the release.

Grantees included underground railroad centers, museums and historical homes across the U.S. Houston’s Simms and Gray-Lewis Cottage was the only site in Texas selected to receive the grant.

Roberts said the funding will go toward the engineering and architectural design and assessment part of the process, which she said will help speed up the efforts.

What happens next

The next step of the restoration project will involve cataloguing the inventory of the house and documenting existing conditions before starting the design process.

Roberts said another approximately $200,000 is needed to finish the entire restoration. If the funds are raised by the end of 2024, she said it could be completed in 2025.

Did you know?

According to the Freedmen’s Town Museum, the lots at 1216 Wilson St. and 1218 Wilson St. in Houston were purchased by Isabelle Simms in 1874, nine years after the end of the Civil War.

In 1896, Simms conveyed a portion of her property to Pauline Gray, a women who later became the wife of attorney J. Vance Lewis. The two lots later became known as the Simms House and the Gray-Lewis Cottage.