Black Arts and Culture

Lincolnsville Photo Exhibit at Portsmouth’s Emanuel AME

The Lincolnsville Photo Exhibit, showcasing Portsmouth’s first Black middle-class neighborhood, was displayed at Emanuel AME Church, a historic Underground Railroad site. Visitors explored the community’s legacy through guided tours and archival images from the Hill House Museum.

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By Randy Singleton
Community Affairs Correspondent
New Journal and Guide

PORTSMOUTH

The Lincolnsville Photo Exhibit was on public display at Emanuel AME Church in Portsmouth from February 2-15. The exhibit was on loan to the church from the Hill House Museum archives. Emanuel AME church curator Ruby Greer and her staff provided guided tours of the exhibit and the historic church, which was organized in 1772. It was erected at its present site in 1857, and served as a stop along the Underground Railroad.

Lincolnsville was the first community set aside for free African Americans in the city and annexed in 1890. The 30 acre community, comprised of former farmlands owned by the Hatton and Neimeyer families, was powered by several key Black-owned businesses and social organizations and would become Portsmouth’s first middle-class neighborhood.

Prominent Portsmouth residents of Lincolnsville included educators Ida Barbour and Israel Charles Norcom, public servant Jeffrey Wilson, and singer Ruth Brown.