About Weeksville Heritage Center
Weeksville Heritage Center (WHC) is a multidimensional museum dedicated to preserving the history of the 19th century African American community of Weeksville, Brooklyn – one of America’s first free black communities. Weeksville, part of the present-day neighborhoods of Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant, was an independent free black community, named for James Weeks. Weeks purchased property in 1838 in order to create an intentional landowning community just eleven years after slavery was abolished in New York State. Continuing the legacy of self-determination, Weeksville’s history was rediscovered in 1968 when urbanization threatened to erase the physical memory by destroying the few remaining historic homes. Instead, a grassroots preservation effort was led by artist and activist, Joan Maynard to preserve the Hunterfly Road Houses and the memory of historic Weeksville. Today WHC uses a contemporary lens to activate this unique history through the presentation of innovative, vanguard and experimental programs. Weeksville advances its mission through history, preservation, visual and performing arts, ecology and the built environment.
