Major Milestones of the Wilson Bruce Evans Home Historical Society

October 2020Conversations begin connecting Evans descendants and Oberlinians interested in rehabilitating Evans House at 33 East Vine St. Following visit to 33 East Vine Street by Dr. Melany Hughes, cleanup begins. Contents of house stored for protection, to return when Evans House is open to the public as historic site and educational center.
January 2021Wilson Bruce Evans Home Historical Society (Evans HHS) officially founded.  Dr. Doris Hughes-Moore, great-great granddaughter, elected President; Carol Lasser, Oberlin College emerita professor, becomes Manager. In following months, Evans HHS takes ownership of 33 East Vine Street, and receives tax-exempt status as a non-profit.
September 2021Evans House admitted to National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.  First Annual Meeting of Evans HHS held in Oberlin’s Martin Luther King, Jr., Park.  Architectural firm Robert P. Madison International begins rehabilitation planning.
February 2022Evans HHS receives first foundation grants from the Nordson Corporation Foundation and the Nord Family Foundation, providing funding for new roof and basic infrastructure.
April 2022Evans House admitted to National Park Service African American Civil Rights Network.
June 2022With support from Oberlin Heritage Center, Evans HHS is awarded an Ohio Certified Local Government Grant, its first publicly-funded grant.
August 2022Historical consultants NaylorWellman report that, contrary to previous understanding, rear wing of 33 East Vine St. was the original house and brick portion was added in 1870s resulting in significant revision of rehabilitation plans.
September 2022National Park Service awards Evans HHS Save America’s Treasures Grant for $283,500.  Process for National Park Service approval of rehabilitation plans begins.
March 2023Ohio History Fund awards “big check” to Evans HHS on Ohio Statehood Day.
June 2023With support from Ohio Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities,
Evans HHS holds public planning sessions with community members and other stakeholders
February 2024Installation of Ohio Historical Marker at Evans House.
April 2024Evans HHS receives National Park Service African American Civil Rights Grant for $739,400.
June 2024Ohio State Capital Budget for FY 2025-26 appropriates $250,000 for Evans HHS.  Trustees approve Museum Master Plan.
September 2024Historically appropriate porch and masonry rehabilition completed. Fourth Annual Meeting celebrates 200th anniversary of birth of Wilson Bruce Evans. Phase II of comprehensive rehabilitation scheduled to begin.
November 2024Preservationist Bill Chapman and Cultural Heritage Practitioner Jerome Bias visit the Evans House, connecting the Evans brothers to Thomas Day, a free man of color in Antebellum North Carolina important for his exquisite furniture and woodworking.
February 2025Showing of “Awakening to Justice,” a film recovering how 19th century abolitionists connected across lines of race to struggle for racial justice in the United States, with community conversation.
September 2025Evans House selected by the National Park Service for inclusion in the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network.
October 15, 2025Official Groundbreaking for Phase II of the Comprehensive Rehabilitation of the Evans House.
January 2026Dendrochronologists at the Tree Ring Lab of the College of Wooster use samples of beams and joists to ascertain that the rear wing of 33 East Vine Street, a barn-like building was constructed in 1847-8, predating the 1854 arrival of the Evans family.