Prominent, historic blacks live again in “Deep Rivers” at Maxwell Mansion

Posted 2/28/20

by Constance Garcia-Barrio The Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion, 200 W. Tulpehocken St., stands poised to celebrate Black history in high style. When it comes to African Americans, the mansion, an …

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Prominent, historic blacks live again in “Deep Rivers” at Maxwell Mansion

Posted

by Constance Garcia-Barrio

The Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion, 200 W. Tulpehocken St., stands poised to celebrate Black history in high style. When it comes to African Americans, the mansion, an authentically restored Victorian house museum, occupies an unusual niche among the Northwest’s historic sites. 

Germantown resident Maurice Tucker, who starred in “Purlie Victorious” at Allens Lane Theatre in 2013, will portray Frederick Douglass in “Tea With Frederick Douglass” at the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion.

Enslaved blacks toiled at Cliveden and Stenton, nearby historic sites, while the Johnson House, a documented station on the Underground Railroad, helped fugitives flee North. But Maxwell Mansion, built in 1859, the eve of the Civil War, has no such history. Still, executive director Diane Richardson felt compelled to honor distinguished Black Philadelphians of the Maxwells’ era.

“At a meeting some years ago, a volunteer noted that the mansion’s neighbors are 77 percent African American, but our programs had little about people of African heritage,” Richardson said. So Richardson and the mansion’s board of directors have responded with “Deep Rivers: How African Americans Waded through the Waters of Oppression to Achieve Greatness in the Nineteenth Century.” 

Visitors may take this docent-led tour on first Sundays, April through December, at 1:15 and 2:15 p.m. The mansion will throw a lively bash Saturday, March 7, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., to introduce “Deep Rivers” to its Northwest neighbors and all Philadelphians. Re-enactors in period dress, representing prominent African Americans from the 1800s, will greet guests and chat about their lives against the background of the mansion’s rich furnishings.

Some of these luminaries had Northwest Philadelphia ties. Guests may mingle in the library with Dr. Eliza Grier (1864-1902), for example. Born in North Carolina near slavery’s end, Dr. Grier switched careers from teaching to medicine due to anger. “When I saw colored women doing … the work in cases of … childbirth, and all the fee going to some white doctor who … looked on, I asked myself why I should not get the fee myself?” Dr. Grier wrote. She corresponded with the dean of the old Women’s Medical College, located in Northwest Philly, asking if a poor freedwoman could study there. Soon admitted, Dr. Grier alternated her medical studies with seasons of picking cotton to pay her tuition. She graduated in 1897.

In the dining room, one can meet James Lyons and Michael Umstead, descendants of shrewd restaurateur John S. Trower (1849-1911). Born free in Virginia, Trower, made his way to Germantown, where he opened a Chelten Avenue eatery. Later, he bought the Germantown Savings Fund Society Building and established a top-tier restaurant there, complete with a bakery. He died a millionaire in 1911, one of country’s richest Black men of his day.

The mansion’s star-studded party also spotlights African American culinary artists. Guests can taste desserts prepared by Shanel Umstead, a Trower descendant, from Trower’s menus. Guests may also take home a recipe card for ginger cookies from Abby Fisher’s (1832- ?) cookbook. Fisher, an illiterate South Carolina freedwoman, dictated her recipes to friends who wrote them down. The resulting work, “What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking” (1881), is said to be the second cookbook written by a Black woman in the U.S. 

Music by prolific composer and musician Francis Johnson (1792-1844) will heighten the 1800s ambiance. Pianist Steven Page will play Johnson’s music on the mansion’s stunning 1865 Stieff grand piano. Two weeks after the “Deep Rivers” kick-off, the mansion will invite the public to a play, “Tea with Frederick Douglass.” The Maxwell Mansion received a grant of $10,000 through PNC Arts Alive to fund writing and produce the play. This one-man, one-act production will run the weekends of March 20 and 27. “I’ve always admired Frederick Douglass for everything he accomplished,” said playwright Shav’on Smith.

Douglass, for his part, would have admired Smith. From “a heavy North Philly neighborhood,” Smith had parents who abused drugs. “Theater offered a way to escape that situation,” said Smith, a powerful soprano who sings jazz and gospel. “I attended Morgan State University [in Baltimore] and earned a bachelor’s degree in theatre.”

In “Tea With Frederick Douglass,” the abolitionist, statesman and writer has invited “guests” for tea to discuss the speech he’s writing to celebrate the 76th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Rochester, New York. Smith aims to reveal a more human side of this nearly-mythic man. “I wanted to show his vulnerability,” said Smith, founder and artistic director of Grounded Theatre Company which specializes in performing stories from the African Diaspora. “I’m delighted to present this play here,” said Smith, a leader with the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department. “I didn’t even have to bring in props. The mansion already gives me an authentic set.”

Germantown resident Maurice Tucker, whom many will recognize from his 2013 starring role in “Purlie Victorious” at Allens Lane Theatre, portrays Frederick Douglass. Tucker, a graduate of Delaware State University with a degree in accounting, studied acting at Freedom Theatre. 

“I was already enamored of Frederick Douglass’ work, and this play gives me a chance to delve deeper,” said Tucker, whose credits include Eugene O’Neill’s “Emperor Jones,” August Wilson’s “Jitney” and more. “I especially enjoy playing Douglass in his younger years when you can see his fire,” said Tucker, also an activist, writer and hip hop artist.

“Douglass had so many subplots in his life: his escape from slavery, his work as an abolitionist and his newspaper, The North Star [an anti-slavery publication.]” 

Douglass the intellectual titan stands foremost in many people’s minds, but Tucker wants to convey Douglass’ emotions. “He must have been angry when he was asked to give that Fourth of July speech,” Tucker said. “He must have been thinking that the American Revolution was about freedom, yet so many Blacks remained enslaved. I feel privileged to portray Frederick Douglass here.”

More information at 215-438-1861 or Ebenezermaxwellmansion.org/Deep-rivers. Constance Garcia-Barrio, a long-time resident of Mt. Airy, is a retired professor of Romance languages at West Chester University and a freelance writer for several area publications.

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