Mary and Eliza Freeman Houses, Greek Revival houses in Bridgeport, Connecticut, US.
The Mary and Eliza Freeman Houses are two wooden frame buildings set on raised masonry foundations in a low-lying part of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Both structures follow the Greek Revival style and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as rare surviving examples of pre-Civil War African American domestic architecture.
The two houses were built in 1848 by sisters Mary and Eliza Freeman, free African American women who had accumulated real estate at a time when property ownership by Black Americans was extremely rare. The houses formed part of Little Liberia, a small settlement of free Black families that once occupied that part of Bridgeport.
The houses are the only surviving structures from Little Liberia, a neighborhood built by free Black families in Bridgeport during the 19th century. Walking through the rooms gives visitors a direct sense of how that community lived and shaped its own place in a society that offered them very little.
The site is managed by the Freeman Center for History and Community, which offers guided tours by request. It is worth contacting them ahead of your visit, as access and availability can vary depending on scheduled programs.
Mary Freeman owned multiple properties in Bridgeport over her lifetime, making her one of the very few Black women on record as a property owner in the region before the Civil War. That ownership gave her a legal standing in a society where most African Americans had none.
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