The Black Writers Museum/Vernon-Wister House, sitting inside Vernon Park, where the tour will kick-off and end. (Photo: Rasheed Z. Ajamu)

The Black Writers Museum (BWM) and Historic Germantown are preparing to showcase their upcoming ‘Curator’s Presentation and Walking Tour,’ which will provide a glimpse into the Black business corridor and civic community in Philly’s 22nd Ward during the early 20th century.

The tour will take place on March 1 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., beginning and ending at the BWM in Vernon Park while spanning as far as Harvey Street.

“There was a prominent Black presence and a thriving Black community while facing the reality of the early 20th century,” said the Founder and Executive Director of the BWM, Supreme Dow.

The points and destinations on the tour will reflect what was captured in J. Gordon Baugh’s A Souvenir of Germantown, which was published in 1913 on the 50th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. 

In the booklet, Baugh highlights Germantown and Mt. Airy’s Black community in 1913 and the infrastructure built in the neighborhood that united individuals and helped the area thrive.

This Souvenir has remained in Historic Germantown’s archives, and the organization’s executive director, Tuomi Forrest, is quite clear about its significance.

“This tour really stemmed from us wanting to do more with this publication,” Forrest said. “This little booklet, that’s only five by eight (5×8) 8 inches, is one of the best documents we’ve seen that talks about the community in that era.

The event will begin with a brief opening lecture in the museum galleries and a PowerPoint presentation featuring images from the booklet and the time period.

“There were doctors, construction contractors, bricklayers, churches that still exist today, educational institutions, and caterers,” Dow said. “We’ve both studied this document, and we’ve both done the research.”

After leaving Vernon Park, the tour will make frequent stops along Germantown Avenue, Rittenhouse Street, and Harvey Street. There will be about 10 to 12 stops during the event, and

Forest and Dow will lead the event’s walk and narration.

“We’ll show some of the historic churches that are still around from 1913 and private homes from doctors and other people who were mentioned in the souvenir,” Forest said.

He added to the overview by saying they’ll also visit “educational sites and business sites because, like Supreme said, [we’re presenting] the whole nexus of the community with its social, civic, religious, and business [components].”

More sites will be mentioned in the tour aside from the places that will be visited, which are located further up north in Mt. Airy as far as Sharpnack Street.

“Some of the physical evidence is still there and some of it isn’t, and we’ll talk about some of the buildings that are gone,” Forrest said.

The booklet also mentions certain schools in the area that were segregated, and Dow and Forrest mentioned how, even years after the piece was published, certain businesses and homes were being burned and vandalized by the Ku Klux Klan.

These grueling obstacles further depict the realities of the Black experience, which this historical tour aims to discuss and spotlight.

“The power in this tour is the fact that even in the face of all of this adversity, with the emergence of the Klan during this time and the existence of blatant segregation and discrimination, we still had a black community that was whole, stayed healthy as possible, provided educational, religious, and social activity that helped them maintain a holistic and thriving life,” Dow exclaimed.

“And because I was born and raised in Germantown, I even bring up some more contemporary stories about what’s happening now in these spaces and what has happened over the last 30 years,” Dow added.

Tickets are still available ahead of this Saturday’s tour. To purchase a ticket, visit the registration page online.

Pryce Jamison is Germantown Info Hub’s community engagement reporter and a Next City Equitable Cities Reporting Fellow. He covers Germantown and Philadelphia, with reporting that includes features, news, solution-focused and community-focused stories.