Allensworth

Schoolhouse

Colonel Allensworth

The Sibbett Group is developing an Interpretive Master Plan for a historic town founded by African American pioneers in 1908. Community workshops are being held to ensure that all stakeholder voices, including those of former residents, are included in this project.

When the Master Plan is implemented, visitors pass into this restored and reconstructed town: the only town in California founded, governed and financed by African Americans. Walking the quiet, dirt streets of Allensworth, they are invited into the numerous buildings on site, each with its own unique story about this utopian dream.

Inside the open residences, visitors discover interpretive panels, artifacts and audio that share the stories of Colonel Allensworth's family and the other pioneering families who came from all over the United States to make Allensworth their home. Docents engage the visitors with little known facts or perhaps even a story passed down through their own family.

In the schoolhouse, visitors explore classroom artifacts and yesterday's school lesson, while re-constructed businesses on site offer opportunities for visitors to investigate how the people of Allensworth supported their goals of self-determination. At the new visitor center, visitors will learn about Allensworth in the greater
context of the American struggle for justice and equal rights.