Tis no problem at all. Twain read a Joel Chandler Harris tar baby story 
at the Pearl Street AME Zion Church on that date. This church was listed 
in Geer's Hartford directory as the AME Zion Church at 269 Pearl Street 
in the 1870s. In 1926 it moved to its current location at 2051 Main 
Street into a building originally built in 1873-1874 for a white ME 
congregation. The pastor of this church, Rev. Samuel Blanks, was a 
participant in the panel discussion following my talk on George Griffin 
in Hartford last month. Griffin was Mark Twain's butler and a deacon in 
that church. You can read all about Mr. Griffin in the latest issue of 
the Mark Twain Journal.

Kevin
@
Mac Donnell Rare Books
9307 Glenlake Drive
Austin TX 78730
512-345-4139

You can browse our books at:
www.macdonnellrarebooks.com


------ Original Message ------
From: "Scott Holmes" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: 6/18/2024 2:41:26 PM
Subject: The African Church in Hartford

>I have been adding the Day By Day indices to Twain’s Geography and have come across what looks like a problem. The entry for March 10, 1881 has Sam speaking at the “African Church”. In parenthesis is (A.M.E. Zion Church, Pearl St., Hfd.). The Wikipedia article for this church states that it “has since 1926 been the home to the city's oldest African-American congregation,”. This is much later than 1881. Digging around I found that there was another church in Hartford that looks more likely to me, the Talcott Street Congregational Church. I would appreciate any information on this. I mapped the Zion Church but I don’t feel comfortable about it.
>
>-- /*Unaffiliated Geographer and Twain aficionado*/
>
>Visit B. Scott Holmes <https://bscottholmes.com>
>Twain's Geography <https://twainsgeography.com>