DC -- Brightwood -- Emory United Methodist Church (by Fort Stevens):
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EMORY_180902_064.JPG: Historical Archeology at Emory Church
Emory Church, Fort Stevens, and the Brightwood Community
Archeologists at Work!
This property contains remains of the Emory Church buildings, from before and after the Civil War. It also contains the earliest portion of Fort Stevens, known prior to its expansion as Fort Massachusetts.
Archeologists are now at work, piecing together historical documents and layers of soil to dicipher how the church, the fort, and this land, formerly owned by a free black woman, shaped the history of the Brightwood community.
Additional information is available on the west side of the property, facing Fort Stevens Park.
EMORY_180902_068.JPG: Historical Archeology at Emory Church
Emory Church and the Brightwood Community
The former parsonage for Emory Church was located south of the current church between 1891 and 1950. The cellar for the parsonage remains buried in this location, as may some outbuildings south of the church.
Brightwood has been a biracial community to its early-19th century beginnings. The area called "Vinegar Hill" extending west from Georgia Avenue, along Rock Creek Ford Road, NW, was held by African American landowning families through the 1940s. Much of this land was held by relations to Elizabeth Thomas, one whose land Fort Stevens was constructed in 1862.
Emory was part of the Southern Methodist Church until the Methodist church unified in 1939. While Emory Church had African American members in the mid-19th century, the congregation was large White [sic] until the late 1960s when the church, like Brightwood was transitioning to majority-African American and immigrants of African and Carribean [sic] descent.
The former parsonage is part of the landscape of Emory Church at its most segregated, while the Brightwood neighborhood was quite diverse.
Archeologists will explore the buried remains of the 1891-1950 parsonage at Emory Church, excavating the cellar and locating other small buildings nearby. The goal of this portion of the excavation is to understand the relationship between the congregation of Emory Church and neighboring Vinegar Hill.
EMORY_180902_074.JPG: Historical Archeology at Emory Church
Fort Stevens and the Development of Brightwood
What remains of Fort Stevens? Archeology of the Civil War
Fort Construction on the Emory Church Property, 1861-1862
Archeologists are searching for portions of Civil War fortifications that have survived under the ground at the Emory Church property. These include portions of the defensive earthen walls of the fort, and a bombproof magazine that once stood underneath the current stone church.
The Seventh Street Turnpike (Georgia Avenue) was fortified as part of the defense of Washington during the Civil War. Fort Stevens, originally called Fort Massachusetts, was built on the property of Emory Methodist Church in 1861. The fort was enlarged over the later part of 1862, expanding west onto property of Elizabeth Thomas and her family.
Built from brick in 1856, Emory Church stood within Fort Massachusetts until it was demolished during the 1862 expansion, to enlarge the bombproof magazine in this section of the fort. A portion of this magazine, as well as the defensive earthworks north and east of the church, remain intact under the ground and are one focus of the archeological research taking place during the autumn of 2016.
Refugees, Contrabands, and Shelter at Fort Stevens:
During the Civil War, enslaved people escaped to Union fortifications for protection. Fort Stevens and nearby Camp Brightwood were no exception. African-American refugees, referred to as "contrabands" if escaping from states in rebellion, were sheltered and employed by soldiers at Camp Brightwood, and in some instances left with them when Union troops moved to other theaters in the war.
Adequate shelter, for families and individuals, is an immense problem in the District of Columbia and the Brightwood neighborhood today. The Beacon Center of the Emory Fellowship will soon be under construction, observes this legacy by providing shelter and services, as part of its core mission.
EMORY_180902_077.JPG: "White Trash Bullshit"
EMORY_180902_080.JPG: 1862 Field drawing showing the expansion of For Massachusetts, indicating the demolition of Emory Church for construction of a larger bombproof magazine, pictured at left.
EMORY_180902_082.JPG: Refugees, Contrabands, and Shelter at Fort Stevens:
During the Civil War, enslaved people escaped to Union fortifications for protection. Fort Stevens and nearby Camp Brightwood were no exception. African-American refugees, referred to as "contrabands" if escaping from states in rebellion, were sheltered and employed by soldiers at Camp Brightwood, and in some instances left with them when Union troops moved to other theaters in the war.
Adequate shelter, for families and individuals, is an immense problem in the District of Columbia and the Brightwood neighborhood today. The Beacon Center of the Emory Fellowship will soon be under construction, observes this legacy by providing shelter and services, as part of its core mission.
EMORY_180902_088.JPG: Early-20th century views of Emory Church and wood framed parsonage, published in 1962 in A History of Emory Methodist Church.
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Directly Related Pages: Other pages with content (DC -- Brightwood -- Emory United Methodist Church (by Fort Stevens)) directly related to this one:
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2017_DC_Emory: DC -- Brightwood -- Emory United Methodist Church (by Fort Stevens) (87 photos from 2017)
2016_DC_Emory: DC -- Brightwood -- Emory United Methodist Church (by Fort Stevens) (38 photos from 2016)
2008_DC_Emory: DC -- Brightwood -- Emory United Methodist Church (by Fort Stevens) (6 photos from 2008)
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2018 photos: Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000.
Trips this year:
Civil War Trust conferences in Greenville, NC, Newport News, VA, and my farewell event with them in Chicago, IL (via sites in Louisville, KY, St. Louis, MO, and Toledo, OH),
three trips to New York City (including New York Comic-Con), and
my 13th consecutive trip to San Diego Comic-Con (including sites in Reno, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Los Angeles).
Number of photos taken this year: about 535,000.
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