All are invited to Evans HHS 4th Annual Meeting on Sept. 14th!
The Wilson Bruce Evans Home Historical Society (Evans HHS) invites the public to their 4th Annual Meeting on Saturday, September 14, in Oberlin’s Martin Luther King, Jr., Park. The gathering will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Oberlin Underground Railroad operative and abolitionist activist whose house is now being rehabilitated to open as an historic site and educational center. It will include welcoming remarks by prominent local leaders, and tributes to activists for their contributions to African American community and life in Oberlin. As a part of the program, accomplished actor Debra Rose will present “The Journey of Lee Howard Dobbins,” the story of a freedom seeking orphan whose short life ended in Oberlin. Evans HHS will also make its annual history book presentation to the Oberlin Public Schools, encouraging Oberlin students to learn more about our past.
Weather permitting, Trustees will show off the recently completed front porch now on the Evans House at 33 East Vine Street, across the street from Martin Luther King, Jr., Park. It was built to evoke the entryway Evans added to the home in 1883. Trustees will also unveil a sign recognizing the rehabilitation funding secured through a grant from the National Park Service African American Civil Rights program. Birthday cake will be served to conclude the event. In case of rain, the 4th Annual Meeting will be held at the Oberlin Underground Railroad Center at 291 South Main Street.
Rain or shine, at 3 pm, Lewis Sheridan Hughes, great-great-great grandson of Wilson Bruce Evans, will present “Prelude to Oberlin: The Leary-Evans Family and Free People of Color in Antebellum Fayetteville, NC,” in the Community Room of the Oberlin Public Library. This talk will focus on the Learys, the family of Sarah Jane Leary Evans, wife of Wilson Bruce Evans, and their history as prosperous, prominent free people of color in North Carolina before the Civil War. Hughes is named after Evans’s nephew Lewis Sheridan Leary, a martyr of Harpers Ferry,
All events are free and open to the public. The Evans Home Historical Society 4th Annual Meeting is part of the Ohio Open Doors Program of the Ohio History Connection, promoting and inspiring pride in Ohio’s heritage. We hope attendees will visit Art Fair in the Square,a program of FAVA, the Firelands Association for the Visual Arts, also taking place on September 14, and featuring work by local artists in nearby Tappan Square, on display from 10 am to 4 pm.