Memorials
Bennett Gate
In memory of Sidonie Bennett,
a Holocaust survivor and
Hungarian immigrant whose dream
of a Vassar education for her
daughter was realized here.
Given, with gratitude,
by Dr. Georgette Bennett '67 and her family
Dedicated, May 2009
Home of the Bennett family, Bennett Place was originally a rather normal yeoman farm during the Civil War. It would gain fame as the largest site of a Confederate surrender during the Civil War. On April 17th, 18th, and 26th, of 1865, General Johnston negotiated the surrender of the Armies of Georgia, Florida, and the Carolinas (an army of 89,240). However this is also a monument to immigration. As both armies had to sit around in the Durham area for weeks many soldiers began to develop a taste... Read More
This Baptist church is successor to the church established about one mile southwest, by Elder Tidence Lane and Elder William Murphy in 1785. A cemetery is near the original church site, which stood on the Old Stage Road from Abingdon to Knoxville. This road, made by immigrant pioneers, followed game and Indian trails.
The third worst mining disaster in the state's history caused the deaths of 119 people. Many of those people were immigrants from Poland, Italy, and Greece.
A store with a residence above was a common pattern in nineteenth century Madison. This brick structure was erected as a saloon and grocery for Charles Biederstaedt. Built in a high Victorian Italianate mode, it replaced an earlier structure. In 1891 Bavarian immigrant George C. Breitenbach took over the store.
Near this spot in 1760 stood Timothy Bigelow's tavern, where travellers and local people gathered to drink rum, trade stories, and oonduct business. In 1776, Bigelow died suddenly, leaving his wife Elizabeth with four children to support. Widow Bigelow decided to operate the tavern herself.
It was not long before Mrs. Bigelow's political activities nearly put her out of business. The Revolutionary War had begun, and people in Middletown noticed that the Bigelow tavern seemed to be a... Read More
Plans for The Black Hawk Statue began in 1908 by sculptor Lorado Taft and the Eagle's Nest Art Colony. The crossed-arms nature of the statue is akin to how Taft and others stood on the bluff, arms folded in contemplation of where American Indians once stood, looking over the same bluff of the Rock River. The monolith was completed in 1911.
In Durham NC, one the the original centers for black businesses sits in the downtown area. The creation of Black Wall Street (spearheaded by John Merrick and Charles Spalding) marked a turning point for the identity of the black businessman and formed an economic center for black businesses in the antebellum south.