ANN ARBOR, MI — The new permanent home of a museum in Ann Arbor offers an opportunity to celebrate local Black history and the accomplishments of notable people.
The African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County is open in a restored farmhouse at 3261 Lohr Road, near big box retailers and condo communities in Pittsfield Township just outside Ann Arbor.
RELATED: Black history museum opens new space in 180-year-old farmhouse near Ann Arbor
The museum’s regular hours are noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. They also host special events, classes and workshops.
Here are a few takeaways from a visit to the museum’s current local history exhibit, “Black History: Local Roots,” which showcases artifacts and stories from prominent Black families and individuals.
David Byrd, an architect, Washtenaw Community College instructor and community leader, is shown in December 1978 in the library of the farmhouse at 3261 Lohr Road in Pittsfield Township, which he restored with his students after purchasing it three years earlier.The Ann Arbor News archives courtesy of OldNews.AADL.org
A prominent architect restored the farmhouse with WCC students
Restoring the more than 180-year-old farmhouse was a labor of love for prominent Black architect David Byrd. Byrd and his wife Letitia Byrd purchased it in 1975 for his office.
David Byrd, who founded Washtenaw Community College’s construction technology program, paid his students to help restore the farmhouse and learn the trades as they went. He filled the house with 19th century furniture he restored. His students also helped build a chapel, now the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, behind the house. It was finished just months before his death in 1987.
He had made a name for himself working in restoration in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C., before coming to Ann Arbor. He also served as a county commissioner from 1968-1972 and advocated for affordable housing and civil rights.
“In pure restoration, there is absolutely no remodeling,” Byrd told The Ann Arbor News in an article published Dec. 31, 1978.
“You put the structure back together exactly like it was originally,” he continued. “You make no attempt to change, and you work to be authentic in every detail. You have no license to express yourself.”
The property was once part of a 480-acre farmstead originally established by European settlers. Ralph Updike, a boat and mill builder from New Jersey purchased deeds from the U.S. government for the acreage in 1825. Property ownership passed to numerous farming families over the years.
Letitia Byrd, an educator and community activist, served as one of museum’s founding members. The museum, created ‘without wall,“ had used the house for artifact storage and meeting space for more than 15 years. Prior to her death in 2018, she had resisted selling the property to developers, her son Kip Lightfoot previously said.
Lightfoot sold the property to the museum in December 2022 and petitioned to get the property registered in 2023 as a historic district.
A photograph of Martha Aray Day, the first Black woman to own and operate a cider mill near Ann Arbor, is on display at The African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025.Jen Eberbach/MLive
Early Black business owners helped shape the community
Several Black business owners are celebrated in the museum’s current exhibit, which features photographs and artifacts from local families.
Among them, Martha Aray Day was the first Black woman to own and operate a local cider mill. It was located on Michigan Avenue in Pittsfield Township, according to the museum.
Day was “believed to be one of the few documented Black business owners at that time in the trade of cider,” and began a ten-year run in the late 1800s, according to an exhibit wall label.
Her family was also involved in the Underground Railroad prior to the Civil War.
A block of East Ann Street in downtown Ann Arbor was a thriving Black business district in the 20th century.
“From the 1930s to the 1970s, Ann Street was a hub for Black-owned businesses in downtown Ann Arbor,” according to the exhibit. “Barber shops, shoe shine parlors, dry cleaners, restaurants, blues bars, and pool rooms formed the backbone of Black social life.”
Sanford’s Shoe Repair, Easley’s Barber Shop, Rush’s Barber Shop, Midway Lunch and other businesses were among them.
Ypsilanti is home to the second oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in Michigan
One of the earliest African American congregations in Michigan hails from Ypsilanti.
The Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church “goes back to the earliest days of black settlement in Ypsilanti,” according to the exhibit.
The congregation’s long history is celebrated in the exhibit, which features a more than 100-year-old church pew donated to the museum and a photo of church members from the 1930s.
Churchgoers first met in 1843 inside the homes of Flora Thompson and Sylas Jones, according to the exhibit. In 1856, Jesse and Isa Stewart donated lots at Buffalo and Adams streets, where the congregation met in a converted livery stable. A larger church was built around 1870.
James Kersey designed and local residents built the current church building, opened in 1904.
“The new brick building would be a symbol of the community’s presence and solidity for many years,” an exhibit label states.
Famous choir and music director Eva Jessye is celebrated at The African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County, shown Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025.Jen Eberbach/MLive
Exceptional creative professionals have local ties
Among other movers and shakers from local Black history, the museum is showcasing major accomplishments of creative professionals, including internationally recognized choral director Eva Jessye.
Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. designated the Eva Jessye Choir as the official choir of the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington. Jessye lived and performed in Ann Arbor and taught at the University of Michigan.
Her choir, originally named the Original Dixie Jubilee Singers, toured stages in the U.S. and Europe and performed on the radio.
“With a repertoire of spirituals, work songs, mountain ballads, ragtime, jazz, and light operas, the group served as singers in numerous Broadway shows and musical motion pictures,” an exhibit label states.
Jessye is credited as being the first Black musical director of a film starring Black actors, for the 1929 MGM film “Hallelujah.” She was also the choral director for George Gershwin’s original production of 1935 folk-opera “Porgy and Bess.”
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