00:41 - We are a Bucks County museum.

00:43 - We want to tell the whole story.

00:45 - We don't want to just segment history to African-American women's history.

00:51 - So that's my philosophy here at the museum.

00:54 - I am Shirley Lee Coursey, executive director of Gather Place Museum.

00:59 - We are headquartered here in the AME Church of Yardley.

01:05 - Yardley was founded in 1682

01:08 - by William Yardley.

01:11 - William Yardley was a Quaker

01:14 - and he came from England, just like our founder, William Penn.

01:18 - He also was allotted this property in Yardley.

01:22 - Back then it was all part of the lower Wakefield Township.

01:26 - In the early years, William.

01:28 - Yardley came with his wife and two sons.

01:31 - 20 years later they fell to various illnesses

01:36 - and so his family early on passed away.

01:40 - His nephew, Thomas Yardley

01:43 - came from England to settle the estate, and Thomas Yardley is the one

01:48 - that stayed in this area and built this into what Yardley Borough became.

01:57 - William Yardley.

01:59 - Y e a r d I e y had an e.

02:04 - Then when his nephew came over, it would became y a r d I e y.

02:10 - And then later, because of the railroad coming through in the 1800,

02:15 - it became Yardley Ville.

02:17 - And then our borough was founded.

02:21 - We kind of broke apart from the entire Lower Wakefield Township.

02:24 - In 1895, Yardley became a borough, and we are listed in the National Register

02:31 - of Historic Places along with this beautiful AME church of Yardley.

02:38 - Three years ago, I became the conservator

02:41 - and we started really digging into the history of this church.

02:46 - And our earliest recollection is in the early 1800s.

02:52 - This property by then was parceled out from the yard lees.

02:57 - It was less than an acre, and it was purchased by a group of A.M.E.

03:02 - congregants who came from

03:04 - Trenton, new Jersey, right across the nearby Delaware River.

03:08 - They purchased the property from the staplers 60 years earlier.

03:13 - We found out that this property was a hay

03:16 - press barn in the early 1800s.

03:20 - So before this church was erected, it was a place of worship,

03:25 - and its document it.

03:26 - These people were called the Free People's Church.

03:30 - And they worshiped in the barn.

03:33 - And then in 1817, they became a little more organized.

03:37 - It was the colored church.

03:40 - And we have the landmark cornerstones on our church.

03:49 - So this church in 1877 was built.

03:54 - And then from there it was a very family oriented congregation.

03:59 - And many were members here from the 1800s.

04:03 - Up until the last matriarch of the family

04:07 - passed away in the 1990s.

04:14 - So around the 1900s,

04:16 - this was a solid, working class African-American community.

04:21 - The church was established here.

04:24 - And another church, a Baptist church, was built in 1915.

04:28 - So this was the African-American community,

04:32 - and many found work, including my one of my aunts.

04:37 - She was a nanny for the Cadwallader.

04:40 - Many women were the cooks.

04:42 - Many women started their own little businesses,

04:45 - little porch front stores, African-Americans

04:49 - in this Yardley borough had been the core

04:53 - of its production.

04:56 - Yardley borough as many places throughout Bucks County

05:00 - because we're so close to main waterways, going north,

05:04 - Yardley has many documented and speculated Underground Railroad sites.

05:09 - We even speculate that our property, in its early days

05:14 - as I spoke about when it was a Hay Press born

05:17 - freedom seekers found refuge here.

05:21 - And so we know our property was also an Underground Railroad link,

05:26 - because I just want everyone to know underground is just a terminology.

05:32 - Not everything was actually underground most places.

05:36 - It was the Quakers allowing the freedom seekers

05:40 - who are escaping slavery to stay in barns during the day

05:45 - and at night they would travel the waterways.

05:48 - So I'm happy to say Yardley Barrow, which I'm a third generation resident,

05:54 - has wonderful Underground Railroad spots, starting with our property

05:59 - in the early 1800s along the historic Delaware Canal.

06:04 - There's another, place called Aaron LaRue.

06:08 - It was a, place of refuge.

06:11 - It was a, hotel.

06:14 - And it's said that the canal boats with high freedom seekers

06:20 - and Aaron LaRue and his family would take them in during the day,

06:25 - give them food, and then they would be able to travel on north.

06:29 - We also have an Underground Railroad site along

06:32 - the other section of Canal Street.

06:36 - When they move this house, in,

06:39 - I guess it was around the early, maybe 1960s.

06:46 - They wanted to build a modern day Wawa.

06:48 - So this house that was built in the 1700s was moved.

06:52 - They found remnants that it was an underground hideaway.

06:56 - So that is another underground railroad spot that sits

06:59 - right along on the other section of Canal Street,

07:03 - along the canal.

07:10 - One of the prominent families here was a dairy family who was married.

07:13 - Dairy? Yes. Let me tell you about the dairies.

07:16 - Now, you've heard about many of the prominent Yardley founders,

07:19 - like the Yardley, the Cadwalader, the Twinings, the eastern well here.

07:25 - This was geographically the lower end of the village.

07:30 - We're south of Letchworth Avenue.

07:33 - And in this area, originally it was called, the boatyard.

07:39 - So we have documentation that early

07:42 - on, African-Americans were here with this church,

07:46 - with its history, property from the early 1800s, when it was a barn.

07:51 - 16 years later, it was built by the African congregants,

07:55 - along with the Quakers, who helped build, this church.

07:59 - And so, based on that history, we found out that dairy,

08:04 - dairy, there's a Mary dairy.

08:08 - She's listed in the lower Mayfield Township.

08:11 - You know, this whole area was originally Lower Mayfield Township.

08:15 - She's in the census.

08:16 - When she passed away in 1860.

08:19 - She was born in 1790.

08:22 - So we trace the dairies as the oldest known

08:26 - African Americans in your borough.

08:29 - We do believe there may be others, because, the yard lease, when they,

08:35 - came here, they did bring

08:37 - indentured servants and they did bring enslaved people.

08:41 - We have their first names, but we don't know their last name.

08:44 - So our oldest known, documented,

08:48 - African-Americans go back to a Mary dairy.

08:52 - And her lineage still lives in Yardley Barrow today.

08:56 - There are eight generations and still the maternal side

09:00 - of the dairies that still live in Yardley.

09:04 - So that makes them the longest unbroken lineage in Yardley.

09:09 - Barrow. African-Americans.

09:11 - Now my family tree.

09:13 - I'm third generation.

09:15 - My grandmother came here with her

09:18 - first husband at the turn of the century.

09:21 - And that was part of the Great Migration that I can tell you about,

09:24 - that many African-Americans started coming to Yardley Borough and Bucks County.

09:30 - And they found work here.

09:33 - In the early 1900s.

09:36 - My family going back to my grandmother's

09:39 - first husband and many that lived on this street.

09:43 - Starting, with

09:45 - many African-Americans found work.

09:48 - They helped with the railroad.

09:52 - The, New York,

09:54 - Pennsylvania Railroad Company

09:57 - built the railroad that still exists here.

10:00 - It's a train stop here in Yardley in the late 1800s.

10:04 - We have row houses that were built by Esperon.

10:08 - He's another prominent, Quaker from Yardley.

10:12 - He built the row homes that still exist today.

10:15 - And it's said that the Irish immigrants, the workers who helped build the railroad,

10:19 - they stayed here.

10:20 - My family, came here in the turn of the century.

10:25 - And many others, they found work.

10:28 - Let me tell you about a gentleman who lived on this street. Mr.

10:31 - Briscoe, we will call him Mister Brick.

10:34 - He worked up at the duck farm.

10:37 - By the early 1900s, the original property

10:40 - of William Yardley was sold.

10:43 - And it became McCormick Duck Farm.

10:46 - And Yardley was known during that time.

10:49 - They weren't the finest ducks throughout the nation.

10:53 - So many African-American men and women worked there.

10:56 - Well, Mr.

10:57 - Barrett was there highly

11:00 - producing duck slaughterer.

11:03 - He, the boss, loved him.

11:06 - They say Mr.

11:07 - McCormick just loved the way he worked.

11:09 - Well, one day Mr.

11:10 - Barrett had a toothache and he could not let Mr.

11:14 - Brick leave.

11:15 - So he called in a dentist, and the dentist pulled his tooth

11:21 - while he was on break.

11:24 - And within an hour, they say Mr.

11:26 - Barrett was back to work.

11:28 - So this is just a little example of the African Americans

11:32 - who are part of this community.

11:36 - During the 1950s and 60s.

11:38 - It was very entrepreneurial, very spiritual.

11:42 - Many found work with the steel mill.

11:46 - Many women had their own storefront store.

11:49 - Mrs. Buzzi, on South Valley Avenue.

11:52 - You could go there and get a lunch.

11:54 - Mrs.

11:55 - Elam had her own little snack store.

11:58 - So here in this area of Yardley Boro,

12:04 - working very spiritual African-Americans

12:08 - who were the foundation of the everyday life of Yardley.

12:11 - Borough.

12:15 - So let's move that into the 1970s and 80s.

12:17 - How did the community change?

12:19 - I would say around now, I was here.

12:24 - My whole family across the street.

12:26 - Mom and dad purchased our home here in 1958,

12:31 - and we all went through the, Pendlebury School District.

12:35 - We will walk uptown.

12:37 - Our school was Yardley Elementary previously, and

12:41 - it was the school that went all the way up to high school and college.

12:46 - So when I was a little girl, my brothers and sisters, it was Shawnee.

12:49 - Elementary School and we would walk daily

12:52 - to the school yard, which is known as a walking town.

12:56 - They by then there were three African American churches.

13:00 - AME church of your was the first 1915 First Baptist Church

13:05 - and then in the 50s and 60s,

13:08 - a gentleman and several African Americans

13:11 - purchased property on Pennsylvania Avenue and built the community.

13:14 - Baptist church.

13:16 - So in this little area, it's a very spiritual town.

13:20 - And I believe that's why the culture of Yardley is still that way,

13:25 - a very family oriented, very supportive community.

13:32 - By the 1980s,

13:36 - Helene Darry Giles knew she needed to preserve this church.

13:40 - It was dwindled down.

13:42 - So she wrote an application to the Bucks County Historical Association

13:48 - and received a heritage application plaque.

13:52 - And that's what the top plaque is at the top of the church, 1982

13:57 - because of her, that was the first document

14:01 - to make sure this was a historical landmark in Bucks County.

14:05 - Well, fast forward to 2022.

14:08 - Me being a resident here hadn't been an active church in over 20 years.

14:13 - I saw it falling apart.

14:15 - I knew I had to do something with the help of my neighborhood.

14:19 - My brother Michael Lee,

14:22 - and my sister in law, Marlene.

14:23 - We literally, saved the church, but I petitioned the court.

14:28 - I became the conservator.

14:30 - So then I really it opened up a lot of information about the church.

14:35 - Many historians, read about what I was doing.

14:39 - So I got visited by Jeffrey Marshall and many others

14:44 - who were so happy, including here in Yardley Borough.

14:48 - I'm a member of the historical association.

14:51 - The president, Susan Taylor, step right up, wrote me a beautiful letter

14:55 - in support of what I was doing after I petitioned the court.

14:58 - I'll never forget at the Bucks County Common Pleas,

15:02 - my attorney and I and supportive family members, my brother Michael,

15:07 - Susan Taylor, yada, historical Association, and many other supporters,

15:12 - they were there with me and it was not a problem.

15:16 - I became the conservator.

15:18 - My name added to the deed.

15:21 - And so after that, based on,

15:24 - advice, legal advice I received, we found out that the good news

15:29 - about this church, it never changed hands on the original deed.

15:34 - It still had the original, trustees.

15:38 - And so my advice was, let's leave it as a A.M.E.

15:43 - church.

15:45 - No encumbrances, no taxes would do.

15:48 - And thank God, I believe it was just my time, my destiny

15:53 - to step in and rescue the church along with my family and friends.

15:59 - Because I think it was destined for maybe a parking lot.

16:03 - So I was so happy that I was able, being from this community

16:07 - and dwindling down to less than a dozen

16:11 - African-American families, inaudible.

16:14 - I'm so happy that I was able to be a part of rescuing the church,

16:19 - being a conservator, and I had a grand opening.

16:23 - The whole community help.

16:25 - My brother got a dumpster and we dusted the place out.

16:29 - My first grant was under the direction of Senator Sam to Syria.

16:35 - I had a grand opening. Just.

16:37 - We just did it out.

16:38 - It didn't look anything as nice as it is now.

16:41 - But the bone structure was there.

16:43 - I saw the vision of rehabbing this church because I knew it's a living legacy.

16:50 - So after many folks came

16:52 - by and, we put the word out.

16:56 - And through Senator Santos Serio, after I found it, my nonprofit,

17:01 - the advice of my attorney was establish

17:04 - your Pennsylvania nonprofit Gather Place Museum.

17:08 - That led me to get grants

17:10 - through the direction and under, making sure I submitted all my paperwork.

17:15 - I was able to get my first grant

17:18 - through the Pennsylvania Department of Economic Development,

17:23 - and that was a $50,000 grant

17:25 - that allowed me to get rehab.

17:28 - The roof

17:30 - with my brother found a old,

17:34 - contractor who knew how to preserve lime plaster walls.

17:38 - Our goal was to keep it as much intact as possible.

17:42 - And it's amazing.

17:44 - This is such a well-built building.

17:47 - It's also listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

17:52 - What an honor to be from this community.

17:56 - Having the support of my family and my community.

17:59 - And now it's Gather Place Museum.

18:02 - And we bring history to life.

18:05 - We have photos of what

18:07 - Helen Dairy Giles accomplished.

18:11 - I was able to meet and reach out to Jeffrey Marshall in 2022.

18:17 - He was still the director of the Bucks County Conservancy,

18:21 - and he sent me the original photos

18:25 - that Helene Dairy Giles took in 1982.

18:29 - I enlarged those photos.

18:31 - So you see in the formerly choir area photos, and that's our image

18:37 - and historic preservation of when

18:40 - this was still an active church.

18:43 - So that's what they'll see when they visit.

18:46 - And then to keep us going.

18:49 - We have programs.

18:51 - We tell the story of Harriet Tubman.

18:55 - We tell the story of the women's suffrage movement.

18:58 - We tell local history how we are environmentally

19:03 - a part of lock five and the Delaware.

19:06 - Canal system.

19:11 - For about a year

19:11 - and a half ago, through advice from my brother Michael.

19:15 - I found out about America 250,

19:19 - the state level initiative

19:21 - for celebrating 2026.

19:24 - They had a program called Nonprofit Affiliate.

19:28 - And I filled out the application

19:30 - and that allowed me to be connected statewide.

19:33 - So people throughout the state know about Gather Place.

19:37 - Then about a year ago, they invited folks

19:41 - to apply for the Semi Quinn grants.

19:45 - That was last fall.

19:46 - Again, I believe in networking and making sure I'm in touch with not only

19:52 - my community here in Yardley, but throughout bucks County and our state.

19:56 - I applied for the first round of the semi.

19:59 - Quinn Grant.

20:00 - Lo and behold, I was one of three Bucks County

20:05 - nonprofits

20:07 - to receive the grant, and my grant title

20:11 - that I proposed was basically,

20:15 - if I had funding,

20:17 - I could increase what I've been doing for the past three years.

20:21 - I could expand the story of

20:25 - African Americans, women, local history.

20:30 - Our environment tours along the canal, tours

20:35 - about the Underground Railroad in Ghana and throughout Bucks County.

20:39 - So I received the grant and and we

20:43 - I had a kickoff in April at the Yardley Friends meeting house.

20:46 - Since then, we've been developing our program and we're ready to launch it.

20:52 - It's called History Hunt for me,

20:55 - and it's under my realm of celebrating.

21:00 - America's 250 years of resilience.

21:06 - As Abigail Adams said, remember the ladies.

21:09 - I want to make sure as we're talking about America's history,

21:13 - not only do we have to include the African American story.

21:17 - I want to make sure that we remember the lady.

21:21 - We have a wonderful program called.

21:23 - From Martha Queen Michelle, and we celebrate

21:28 - 12 influential

21:30 - first ladies of the United States, starting with our first first lady, Martha

21:35 - Washington, to our first African American, first lady, Michelle Obama.

21:41 - We have a program, a fun program called the Harlem Renaissance.

21:45 - So we're going to celebrate the cultural explosion

21:48 - of African Americans that happened in the 1920s.

21:52 - We also have a module, the civil rights movement.

21:57 - And of course, we're going to cover that with Martin Luther King, Rosa Park,

22:01 - Fannie Lou Hamer, America's 250 Years of Resilience

22:09 - in Pursuit of liberty, justice, and equality.

22:13 - And I repeat, in pursuit of liberty,

22:17 - justice and equality, because I realize we're still in pursuit of those things.

22:22 - But many things have happened throughout our history

22:27 - from the law.

22:31 - I've been warmly supported by my family,

22:35 - by my community

22:37 - to say this landmark, because it's so important,

22:42 - because of gentrification

22:45 - and much of our history being erased.

22:47 - Sometimes it takes one person to step up.

22:52 - And with the support of my family, my community,

22:56 - and now my state, I'm happy to say

22:59 - it's been preserved, celebrated.

23:04 - And we invite community engagement to keep it going.