For the month of February, the Hagen History Center will be recognizing African Americans in Erie County: A Trail of Shared Heritage (The Trail).
Trail #9: Bayview Park – 500 W. 2nd Street, Erie Here at the northern edge of Jerusalem, Erie’s Black baseball team, the Pontiacs, drew large crowds from 1936-1956. Originally the St. James A.M.E. Sunday School team, sponsorship from Longnecker Pontiac gave the team their name. Featuring former Negro League players and MLB’s 1950 Rookie of the Year Sam Jethroe, the Pontiacs became the most celebrated African American team in Erie sports history.
For the month of February, Hagen History Center will be recognizing African Americans in Erie County: A Trail of Shared Heritage (The Trail).
The Trail is a community history project that dates back to 2013, that continues to inspire us about Erie’s Black History. Hagen History Center planned to present multiple images for each stop on the Trail, but then realized our collections lack visual materials for a few of the stops.
To help us rectify this, we are inviting readers to become Citizen Archivists.
A Citizen Archivist is a term coined in 2010 by the National Archives and describes a virtual volunteer who helps professional archivists by locating and uploading relevant information, tagging, and adding metadata to already established online archives.
Click the link for the Trail, and if you happen to have documents, photographs, maps, or other images associated with a trail number, send us a message on social media! We will be posting a few times a week, so stay tuned!
