About Us
Founder
Deborah Cummings Khadraoui is the Founder and visionary of the Committee to Restore The Abyssinian Meeting House Project.
Upon seeing a letter in the editorial section of The Portland Press Herald referring to a vacant building on Newbury Street which held significant historical value and sat unused for decades deteriorating and nearly forgotten.
Deborah organized community leaders and began the arduous work of setting up and establishing a 501c3, The Committee to Restore the Abyssinian They purchased the building in 1998 and began the decades-long efforts to restore and preserve the building and the stories of Maine's 17th Century African American history.
History
The Abyssinian Meeting House was constructed by free blacks who came together to seek opportunity and refuge. The Meeting House became the cultural center of the community. Meetings, church services, concerts, and a segregated public school, throughout the 19th century. Its members and preachers included former enslaved people, leaders of the Underground Railroad, and unspoken advocates for the abolition of slavery in the United States. The Meeting House closed in 1917 and was remodeled in 1924 as tenement apartments. Eventually, the City of Portland seized the building for unpaid taxes. The building sat vacant and deteriorating, nearly forgotten, until Deborah Cummings Khadraoui founded the Committee to Restore the Abyssinian Meeting House, and the building was bought in 1998 from the City.
About the Restoration
1997 began a decade of organizing, planning, research, and stabilization thanks to the Committee to Restore the Abyssinian Meeting House. Collaborative partners include the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, the City of Portland, Greater Portland Landmarks, Maine Preservation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the National Park Service.
The Abyssinian Meeting House is a designated City of Portland historic landmark. In 2006 it achieved a listing in the National Register of Historic Places and in 2007 the Abyssinian Meeting House was recognized by the National Park Service National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom as the first site listed in Maine.
Extensive research and documentation have revealed that the structure continues to be an important source of data for investigating African American cultural and religious history in Maine. The Abyssinian Meeting House is poised to be a pivotal restoration project of local, state, and national significance.
Mission
The Mission of the Committee to Restore the Abyssinian includes but is not limited to the restoration, historic preservation and maintenance of the historic building known as the Abyssinian Meeting House, in the City of Portland, State of Maine; and the preservation and promotion of the cultural heritage of African-Americans in Maine.
Meet the Board
The Abyssinian is Apart of the National Underground Rail Road Network to Freedom
The National Park Service preserves and protects powerful places - the physical memory of our nation's history. Locations related to the Underground Railroad are part of the Network to Freedom program. The locations in this program include National Park units, as well as, locations with a verifiable connection to the Underground Railroad. Visiting these places - virtually or in person - allows you to form your own connections to the story of the Underground Railroad in America.
The Network to Freedom currently contains over 740 locations nationwide with a verifiable connection to the Underground Railroad. These locations include sites, facilities, and programs, most of which can be visited. The interactive map below includes the locations of those open to the public and/or include public information about properties. Some locations are not plotted on the map for privacy and/or security reasons.