Description:
The Abyssinian Meeting House was built in 1828 and up until 1917, it served as the center of social and political life for Portland’s African American community, being the third oldest standing African American meeting house in the United States. The building served as a church, segregated public school, and a hall for social events. Some of the members and preachers of the Meeting House were self-emancipated people, leading figures for the Underground Railroad movement and outspoken abolitionists including William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass. The building has been in the possession of the Committee to Restore Abyssinian since 1998 and it is currently undergoing restoration. The Abyssinian Meeting House is in the National Register of Historic places as well as the first site in Maine to be included in the National Park’s Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
