Haddonfield’s historic Black neighborhood is now a destination on New Jersey’s Black Heritage Trail

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“The Point,” a historic Black neighborhood in Haddonfield, is now among the more than 400 historical designations in the borough.

A Friday ceremony at Ellis and Potter streets celebrated the unveiling of the historical marker design that will be installed later this year by the New Jersey Historical Commission. “The Point” is also among the first 51 destinations that will be part of the state’s Black Heritage Trail.

The ceremony was part of a series of events organized by the Preserving Black Haddonfield History Project as part of the borough’s official pre-Juneteenth celebration. After the ceremony, there was a walking tour featuring 12 sites in the neighborhood.

On Saturday, a screening of a docu-series featuring first-hand accounts of “trials and triumphs” from “The Point” will take place at Kings Road Brewing Company on Kings Highway East. In the evening, an “American Bandstand-style” Sadie Hawkins dance party and barbecue will take place.

“The Point” is a stop along New Jersey’s Black Heritage Trail

Signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in September 2022, the Black Heritage Trail program was created to boost Black history, heritage and culture while highlighting sites through historical markers.

“The Point” was nominated in the initial nominating round in March 2024.

“We had our advisory committee review all of the nominations that were submitted, and we ultimately were able to provide these to the commissioners for the New Jersey Historical Commission,” said Dr. Synatra Smith, project manager with the historical commission.

The historic neighborhood joins other sites across the state, from Bergen County to Cape May. Among the sites are the Borough of Lawnside, Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson and Franklin Street School in Cape May, plus two sites honoring Thomas Mundy Peterson in Middlesex County.

Peterson was the first Black person to vote after the passage of the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It was ratified in February 1870.

“He was from Metuchen, and he voted in Perth Amboy. So, we’ve got markers going in both sites for him,” Smith said.

The commission is going through a second round of nominations, with more historical sites expected to be announced in September.

The process is rigorous, according to C. Adrienne Rhodes, co-founder of the Preserving Black Haddonfield History Project.

“We had to name several primary and secondary sources. This is not something that the Historical Society is doing lightly,” she said. “In addition to identifying those sources, we had to do an annotated bibliography. It’s a very complicated process, but we stuck to it.”

Last year, Rhodes’ organization installed two historical markers recognizing Haddonfield’s Black history for the first time since the borough was founded in 1713.

Rhodes, who is also a member of the WHYY Community Advisory Board, said the marker for “The Point” is the first one from the state recognizing the borough’s Black history.

“There are over 400 historic designations in this borough. None of them were black. And now we’re going to have one at ‘The Point,’” she said.

“It was a very good life here”

“The Point” was once a vibrant African American neighborhood on the borough’s west side. Established in the mid-1800s, it was a self-contained neighborhood that covered several streets and included churches, schools and businesses.

“We all contributed to the neighborhood in some way,” said Dolores Streater Logan, whose family moved to “The Point” from nearby Batesville in 1941, residing in a house that stood where center field of the Haddonfield Little League baseball field is currently standing.

“It was made of wood with a porch in the front,” recounted Muneerah Streater Higgs, Logan’s younger sister. “It had a front room, a living room and a kitchen area with a potbelly stove. And there was a basement, and there was also a shed in the backyard.”

The Streater home was among those that fell into disrepair. They were demolished in 1952 to make way for the baseball field. Higgs, who was sharing the family’s legacy during the ceremony, said residents were told that their dilapidated properties would be replaced with new and improved housing for the displaced residents.

“This demolition highlighted the history of displacement and unjust practices in this area,” she said, adding that her grandfather had purchased some lots that were being sold in Lawnside a few years before the displacement.

“Even though we moved to Lawnside, we continued to travel constantly back and forth to Haddonfield to ‘The Point,’” Higgs said. “We never, ever lost our connection to ‘The Point.’”

“We took care of each other, and as far as I’m concerned, it was a beautiful neighborhood to live in,” Logan said.

The 82-year-old recalled the neighborhood having several businesses including a butcher’s shop, a movie theater and a 5-and-10 store.

“We had the truck that would come by with the day-old buns and give them out to the community,” she said. “It was a very good life here.”