| Historical Sites |
The Oldest Black Incorporated Town In America
Janey B. Goode Archaeological Site
Article #1
The proposed New Mississippi River Crossing (NMRC) in the East St. Louis vicinity has spurred some of the largest
scale investigations in the American Bottom since the FAI-270 project.
Janey B. Goode (11S1232)
Data recovery began in 2002 at the dense, complex Janey B. Goode (“JBG”) site (11S1232), a 6 ha occupation
along the southern margin the Horseshoe Lake meander just north of the East St. Louis Mound Group (11S706).
The site abuts an active railroad yard, and is capped by ~0.5 to 1.5 meter layers of historic railroad debris and fill.
By the end of the 2003 field season, approximately 22 percent of the site was stripped and nearly 2,200 prehistoric
features have been excavated.
To date, the largest occupations at JBG are from the Late Woodland Patrick phase and early Terminal Late
Woodland Lloyd phase. Also present are more widely scattered late Terminal Late Woodland (Merrel or Edelhardt
phase), Stirling phase, and late Moorehead or Sand Prairie phase Mississippian features. Numerous single-post
and wall-trench structures have been excavated. Pit features are abundant and diverse, and several large post
pits with extraction ramps have also been excavated. One of the more interesting and puzzling discoveries of the
2003 season is a linear ditch-like feature about 2 m wide and 50-70 cm deep (Figure 6). A 30-m long segment of
the ditch has been excavated, with no evidence for internal or external posts. Its end points have yet to be
uncovered. It extends northward from an old Cahokia Creek meander and exhibits multiple episodes of siltation
and prehistoric re-excavation (maintenance). Possibly used for drainage and/or defense, the ditch fill is laminated,
suggesting that it frequently held water. Superimposition of this ditch by Lloyd phase pit features indicates an
association with JBG’s earliest occupations. On the western flank of the site, a swale approximately 75 m long, 20-
25 m wide and up to 2.5 m deep appears to have been deliberately filled. Most of this landscape modification was
apparently performed during the Terminal Late Woodland occupations. The ditch construction and the swale filling
required substantial labor investments, hinting at a previously unrecognized level of social complexity during the
Terminal Late Woodland period in this area of the American Bottom.
The preservation of fauna and floral remains at JBG is excellent due to a general abundance of limestone within
the features. Features with large quantities of fish bones, scales and mussel shell (some modified into artifacts)
reflect the site's location near aquatic resources. Bone artifacts, especially awls, pins, and fish hooks are
common, and several features produced unusually well-preserved plant materials, including charred cordage.
Also, it appears that the inhabitants of JBG were involved in extra regional interaction throughout its occupation. A
Stirling phase pit excavated in 2002 yielded 36 intact conch and whelk shells, a bison scapula, and two-dozen
Marginella shells. Other features produced marine shell disc beads and pendants, Marginella beads, shark teeth,
copper, nonlocal and/or unusual ceramic vessels, and worked quartz, galena, hematite, and basalt.
Investigations at Janey B. Goode will make a significant contribution to our knowledge of
Late Woodland to Mississippian populations occupying the area of the East St. Louis Mound
Center vicinity. Up to this date, very little has been known about the occupation of this area,
particularly during the Late Woodland.
Article #2
BROOKLYN - In ancient Illinois, small dogs were made to carry or pull sacks of firewood until the tips of their
vertebrae broke. Sometimes their heads were lopped off with stone axes during sacrificial ceremonies. Most
often, they were buried with the trash. No wonder canines kept by Indians in the Midwest were described in early
European explorers' journals as nasty tempered and prone to bite. They were also believed to be unable to bark
but still served as watch dogs, perhaps by nibbling on a sleeping Indian's toes. Nevertheless, an evolving
archaeological record in the metro-east shows that these small 25- to 35-pound primitive animals became as
ingrained in ancient human existence as today's pampered canine pets.
In Southern Illinois a thousand years ago, it was truly a dog's life, according to 60 complete or partial dog
skeletons recovered from the remarkably well-preserved, buried remains of a village from an era archaeologists
refer to as "Terminal Woodland." The site is just outside Brooklyn and is well clear of a nearby modern cemetery.
This fishing village was primarily occupied until about 950 A.D., or just before the explosion of mound building that
marked the more well-known Mississippian Culture, whose members built the raised earthen complex at the
Cahokia Mounds Interpretive Center a few miles away. The skeleton total from the Brooklyn site, first excavated in
2003, is probably a North American record for the recovery of prehistoric dog remains, said Joe Galloy, a Harvard-
trained archaeologist. Galloy's specialties include interpreting the relationship between dogs and the earliest
Americans.
"If there is something that really pulls on the muscles, this bone, the spinous process will fracture and reheal, and
this is an example of one," said Galloy, holding up a delicate, deformed vertebra on which the shark-fin like bone
tip that anchors back muscles was bent. "You see this in modern sled dogs," he said, "This comes from being
used as pack animals, probably hauling firewood."
On a large sheet of white paper spread on a table in front of Galloy at the offices of the Illinois Transportation
Archaeological Research Program in Belleville, was the nearly complete skeleton of a young, female dog
recovered from the excavation site. Galloy said this creature is descended from wolves that probably prowled
human camps and dumps 15,000 or so years ago in Europe and Asia and gradually changed in appearance to
resemble today's dogs. Galloy said the wolves, in return for scavenging, became the eyes and ears of the humans
and eventually became their hunting partners.
At another archaeological site -- the Koster Site along the Illinois River in Calhoun County -- one of the earliest
North American dog burials was uncovered in the 1970s. Radiocarbon dating showed it is about 8,500 years old.
This animal, however, was probably a revered hunting dog and was interred separate from a trash pit and had
been reverently laid on its side, just like rare human burials from this much earlier time. But the dogs found by
excavating teams at the Brooklyn dig headed by Galloy and site supervisor Brad Koldehoff were not hunting
partners. By the time of this particular village, fishing and growing corn had replaced nomadic hunting.
Article #3
BURIED TREASURE
The archaeological site just east of Brooklyn was so rich in artifacts diggers nicknamed it "Janey B. Goode," in
honor of Chuck Berry's song, "Johnny B. Goode."
Artifacts were hauled away in sacks. Two vacant stores in Wood River were needed just for storage and study.
The finds included ornamental alligator and shark teeth, quartz crystals from Arkansas, copper jewelry and a
puzzling, decorated carved bison scapula, or shoulder bone. During the spring and summer, more than a hundred
diggers worked at the acre-sized location, five miles west of Cahokia Mounds State Park in Collinsville.
They unearthed about a third of the ancient fishing village, which test drilling indicated lay three to four feet below
the surface along railroad tracks. The proximity to the railroad discouraged plowing and home construction and
preserved the buried artifacts.
"It's the largest Mississippian village since they unearthed one when they built I-255 in the '80s," said Don Booth,
excavation director and archaeologist for the non-profit Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program.
"It's a major, very important site."
The excavation will continue in the spring and must be completed before construction begins on widening Illinois 3.
Booth said about 30 percent of the site has been exposed, including 50 dwelling sites, indicating the town may
have been larger than the village of Brooklyn, home to about 600.
Now archaeologists must analyze thousands of bits and pieces of life from the village's beginnings in about 600 A.
D., its intermittent occupation, and its abandonment around 1200.
As teams of archaeologists wash, label and study thousands of potsherds, animal bones and stone tools, one
surprising aspect is beginning to emerge.
"Life was probably pretty easy," Booth said. "There was an abundance of fish and game. It's doubtful people had to
work more than just a few hours a day to live well."
Booth said the town had been on the banks of a prehistoric finger of the Mississippi, which flowed over present-
day Brooklyn into Horseshoe Lake, turned sharply south and drained into a swamp.
The discoveries include thousands of chunks of limestone, believed to be used to sharpen bone and antlers into
tools.
Archaeologist Raquel Ozanich said the sheer volume of artifacts made excavation frustrating.
"There was so much," she said. "I was pulling my hair out every day trying to figure out what it means."
Archaeologists Doug Lewis and Raquel Ozanich examined artifacts in a Wood River lab.
Quinn Chapel A.M.E Church
The history of Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church is intertwined with that of the town of Brooklyn, Illinois, so much so that
one can not tell the history of one without the other. According to oral tradition, Priscilla Baltimore purchased her
freedom from her master who was a Methodist minister. While still a slave, she was privileged to travel and
spread the word of the Methodist religion. It has been theorized that on one of these religious missions, she
traveled to the American Bottoms where she later led eleven families to freedom establishing a settlement that
later become known as Brooklyn, Illinois. It was in her home which was located in Brooklyn, that Reverend William
Paul Quinn. Shadrack Steward, Thomas Allsworth and a small group of determined individuals formed Brooklyn
Methodist Church. Church historians state that this was the year of 1825. The church congregation moved into
their first building which was a small log cabin located between 4th and 5th streets on Short Street. It was
strategically located giving escapees easy access to their first station on the Underground Railroad. They were
hidden in the church and given provisions and shelter until it was safe for them to travel on to Alton, Illinois. In
1832, The first church structure was torn down and moved to it's present location which is 108 North 5th Street.
In the year 1836, Jordan Winston Early who was later ordained by Reverend Paul Quinn built the first A.M.E. Church
in the State of Illinois. The church was later renamed Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church after it's first pastor, Reverend
William Paul Quinn. Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church owns the historical honor of being the first A.M.E. Church west
of the Allegheny Mountains. This fact has been documented in the history records of the A.M.E. Church and refutes
all claims made by all others. As a famous entertainer once said, "You better ask somebody and get it straight"!
Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church has served our community for over 182 years. From the beginning of it's conception,
the church has provided safety and assistance to all who enter it's doors. It is the resilience of it's elders that a
great part of Brooklyn's history has been preserved. It was Mr. George McShan of Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church
who furnished Dr. Cha-Jua with much of the historical material pertaining to the church and it's founders for his
book, "America's First Black Town". Mr. George McShan along with Mrs. Magnolia Johnson (who is also a member
of the church) have provided an abundance of material, including photos, documents and oral recordings for this
web site. Were it not for these two individuals who were first to step forward with their assistance, constructing
this web site would have been very difficult.
Antioch Baptist Church
Antioch Baptist Church was founded in the home of Reverend John Richard Anderson in the year 1838. The first
church structure served as a classroom for the children of Brooklyn and neighboring Venice, Illinois during the
week and as a worship sanctuary on Sundays. The Reverend Anderson and his wife owned the parcel of land
located directly across the street from the old church structure. In 1867, they donated this parcel of land to the
church and a new sanctuary was erected November 16, 1908 which stands today.
Antioch is rich in heritage and history. This historical church was used as a "safe house" for runaway slaves on
the famous Underground Railroad system that ran through the state of Illinois. It was also instrumental in
establishing the Baptist General State Convention in Illinois.
Corinthian Church
Corinthian Church was once a magnificent structure exemplifying architectural design that was uncommon for
our area during the period of its' construction. The congregation has long abandoned the church structure in part
due to the uninhabitable condition of the building. The Historical Society has contacted the last known minister
(Robert Thomas) to gather the church's history in an effort to preserve its' story and to include it on the list of
historical sites in Brooklyn, Illinois, to be considered for designation on the National Registry Of Historic Places. To
date, we have not received any oral history or historical documents. HSOBI has met with Rev. Thomas and
inquired about his intentions for the property. His response was, "I'm waiting for the right situation." It is only one
of two historical structures located within the borders of Brooklyn, Illinois that is over one hundred years old.
HSOBI has been offered help in the form of services to evaluate the building for possible restoration to be used as
a museum and cultural center. We forwarded Rev. Thomas' reply and contact information to these sources.
There is nothing more that the Historical Society can do in terms of saving and utilizing the building for purposes
that would benefit the citizens of Brooklyn, Illinois in a positive manner.
In May, 2008, the Board of Trustees for the Village of Brooklyn, Illinois, passed a Historical Preservation Ordinance
to protect its' historical structures. This ordinance has been filed with the state of Illinois. The church structure
located at 300 Madison St. (formally Corinthian Church) is now protected under the historical architectural
ordinances of the state of the state Illinois.
Brooklyn's Historic Cemetery
On January 7, 1891, Mayor John Evans negotiated two acres of land from the Wiggins Ferry Company for the sum
of one dollar. The deed has a stipulation that the land was to be used for graveyard purposes only. The cemetery
is over one hundred years old and was never registered. It is under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Historic
Preservation Agency. HSOBI applied and received a yearly permit on behalf of the village of Brooklyn to restore and
preserve the cemetery. A cemetery workshop was conducted by Dawn Cobb and Hal Hasen of IHPA in 2008.
Students from our mentoring program participated. Volunteers from ITARP have agreed to conduct scanning and
probing for graves free of charge. We are in the process of recording the names of those interned at the cemetery
and purchasing markers for unmarked graves.
When probing and scanning has been completed, HSOBI will purchase signage and fencing for the cemetery. The
cemetery will be rededicated to the village of Brooklyn, Illinois, renamed and registered. This project is our top
priority.
Article #1
The proposed New Mississippi River Crossing (NMRC) in the East St. Louis vicinity has spurred some of the largest
scale investigations in the American Bottom since the FAI-270 project.
Janey B. Goode (11S1232)
Data recovery began in 2002 at the dense, complex Janey B. Goode (“JBG”) site (11S1232), a 6 ha occupation
along the southern margin the Horseshoe Lake meander just north of the East St. Louis Mound Group (11S706).
The site abuts an active railroad yard, and is capped by ~0.5 to 1.5 meter layers of historic railroad debris and fill.
By the end of the 2003 field season, approximately 22 percent of the site was stripped and nearly 2,200 prehistoric
features have been excavated.
To date, the largest occupations at JBG are from the Late Woodland Patrick phase and early Terminal Late
Woodland Lloyd phase. Also present are more widely scattered late Terminal Late Woodland (Merrel or Edelhardt
phase), Stirling phase, and late Moorehead or Sand Prairie phase Mississippian features. Numerous single-post
and wall-trench structures have been excavated. Pit features are abundant and diverse, and several large post
pits with extraction ramps have also been excavated. One of the more interesting and puzzling discoveries of the
2003 season is a linear ditch-like feature about 2 m wide and 50-70 cm deep (Figure 6). A 30-m long segment of
the ditch has been excavated, with no evidence for internal or external posts. Its end points have yet to be
uncovered. It extends northward from an old Cahokia Creek meander and exhibits multiple episodes of siltation
and prehistoric re-excavation (maintenance). Possibly used for drainage and/or defense, the ditch fill is laminated,
suggesting that it frequently held water. Superimposition of this ditch by Lloyd phase pit features indicates an
association with JBG’s earliest occupations. On the western flank of the site, a swale approximately 75 m long, 20-
25 m wide and up to 2.5 m deep appears to have been deliberately filled. Most of this landscape modification was
apparently performed during the Terminal Late Woodland occupations. The ditch construction and the swale filling
required substantial labor investments, hinting at a previously unrecognized level of social complexity during the
Terminal Late Woodland period in this area of the American Bottom.
The preservation of fauna and floral remains at JBG is excellent due to a general abundance of limestone within
the features. Features with large quantities of fish bones, scales and mussel shell (some modified into artifacts)
reflect the site's location near aquatic resources. Bone artifacts, especially awls, pins, and fish hooks are
common, and several features produced unusually well-preserved plant materials, including charred cordage.
Also, it appears that the inhabitants of JBG were involved in extra regional interaction throughout its occupation. A
Stirling phase pit excavated in 2002 yielded 36 intact conch and whelk shells, a bison scapula, and two-dozen
Marginella shells. Other features produced marine shell disc beads and pendants, Marginella beads, shark teeth,
copper, nonlocal and/or unusual ceramic vessels, and worked quartz, galena, hematite, and basalt.
Investigations at Janey B. Goode will make a significant contribution to our knowledge of
Late Woodland to Mississippian populations occupying the area of the East St. Louis Mound
Center vicinity. Up to this date, very little has been known about the occupation of this area,
particularly during the Late Woodland.
Article #2
BROOKLYN - In ancient Illinois, small dogs were made to carry or pull sacks of firewood until the tips of their
vertebrae broke. Sometimes their heads were lopped off with stone axes during sacrificial ceremonies. Most
often, they were buried with the trash. No wonder canines kept by Indians in the Midwest were described in early
European explorers' journals as nasty tempered and prone to bite. They were also believed to be unable to bark
but still served as watch dogs, perhaps by nibbling on a sleeping Indian's toes. Nevertheless, an evolving
archaeological record in the metro-east shows that these small 25- to 35-pound primitive animals became as
ingrained in ancient human existence as today's pampered canine pets.
In Southern Illinois a thousand years ago, it was truly a dog's life, according to 60 complete or partial dog
skeletons recovered from the remarkably well-preserved, buried remains of a village from an era archaeologists
refer to as "Terminal Woodland." The site is just outside Brooklyn and is well clear of a nearby modern cemetery.
This fishing village was primarily occupied until about 950 A.D., or just before the explosion of mound building that
marked the more well-known Mississippian Culture, whose members built the raised earthen complex at the
Cahokia Mounds Interpretive Center a few miles away. The skeleton total from the Brooklyn site, first excavated in
2003, is probably a North American record for the recovery of prehistoric dog remains, said Joe Galloy, a Harvard-
trained archaeologist. Galloy's specialties include interpreting the relationship between dogs and the earliest
Americans.
"If there is something that really pulls on the muscles, this bone, the spinous process will fracture and reheal, and
this is an example of one," said Galloy, holding up a delicate, deformed vertebra on which the shark-fin like bone
tip that anchors back muscles was bent. "You see this in modern sled dogs," he said, "This comes from being
used as pack animals, probably hauling firewood."
On a large sheet of white paper spread on a table in front of Galloy at the offices of the Illinois Transportation
Archaeological Research Program in Belleville, was the nearly complete skeleton of a young, female dog
recovered from the excavation site. Galloy said this creature is descended from wolves that probably prowled
human camps and dumps 15,000 or so years ago in Europe and Asia and gradually changed in appearance to
resemble today's dogs. Galloy said the wolves, in return for scavenging, became the eyes and ears of the humans
and eventually became their hunting partners.
At another archaeological site -- the Koster Site along the Illinois River in Calhoun County -- one of the earliest
North American dog burials was uncovered in the 1970s. Radiocarbon dating showed it is about 8,500 years old.
This animal, however, was probably a revered hunting dog and was interred separate from a trash pit and had
been reverently laid on its side, just like rare human burials from this much earlier time. But the dogs found by
excavating teams at the Brooklyn dig headed by Galloy and site supervisor Brad Koldehoff were not hunting
partners. By the time of this particular village, fishing and growing corn had replaced nomadic hunting.
Article #3
BURIED TREASURE
The archaeological site just east of Brooklyn was so rich in artifacts diggers nicknamed it "Janey B. Goode," in
honor of Chuck Berry's song, "Johnny B. Goode."
Artifacts were hauled away in sacks. Two vacant stores in Wood River were needed just for storage and study.
The finds included ornamental alligator and shark teeth, quartz crystals from Arkansas, copper jewelry and a
puzzling, decorated carved bison scapula, or shoulder bone. During the spring and summer, more than a hundred
diggers worked at the acre-sized location, five miles west of Cahokia Mounds State Park in Collinsville.
They unearthed about a third of the ancient fishing village, which test drilling indicated lay three to four feet below
the surface along railroad tracks. The proximity to the railroad discouraged plowing and home construction and
preserved the buried artifacts.
"It's the largest Mississippian village since they unearthed one when they built I-255 in the '80s," said Don Booth,
excavation director and archaeologist for the non-profit Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program.
"It's a major, very important site."
The excavation will continue in the spring and must be completed before construction begins on widening Illinois 3.
Booth said about 30 percent of the site has been exposed, including 50 dwelling sites, indicating the town may
have been larger than the village of Brooklyn, home to about 600.
Now archaeologists must analyze thousands of bits and pieces of life from the village's beginnings in about 600 A.
D., its intermittent occupation, and its abandonment around 1200.
As teams of archaeologists wash, label and study thousands of potsherds, animal bones and stone tools, one
surprising aspect is beginning to emerge.
"Life was probably pretty easy," Booth said. "There was an abundance of fish and game. It's doubtful people had to
work more than just a few hours a day to live well."
Booth said the town had been on the banks of a prehistoric finger of the Mississippi, which flowed over present-
day Brooklyn into Horseshoe Lake, turned sharply south and drained into a swamp.
The discoveries include thousands of chunks of limestone, believed to be used to sharpen bone and antlers into
tools.
Archaeologist Raquel Ozanich said the sheer volume of artifacts made excavation frustrating.
"There was so much," she said. "I was pulling my hair out every day trying to figure out what it means."
Archaeologists Doug Lewis and Raquel Ozanich examined artifacts in a Wood River lab.
Quinn Chapel A.M.E Church
The history of Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church is intertwined with that of the town of Brooklyn, Illinois, so much so that
one can not tell the history of one without the other. According to oral tradition, Priscilla Baltimore purchased her
freedom from her master who was a Methodist minister. While still a slave, she was privileged to travel and
spread the word of the Methodist religion. It has been theorized that on one of these religious missions, she
traveled to the American Bottoms where she later led eleven families to freedom establishing a settlement that
later become known as Brooklyn, Illinois. It was in her home which was located in Brooklyn, that Reverend William
Paul Quinn. Shadrack Steward, Thomas Allsworth and a small group of determined individuals formed Brooklyn
Methodist Church. Church historians state that this was the year of 1825. The church congregation moved into
their first building which was a small log cabin located between 4th and 5th streets on Short Street. It was
strategically located giving escapees easy access to their first station on the Underground Railroad. They were
hidden in the church and given provisions and shelter until it was safe for them to travel on to Alton, Illinois. In
1832, The first church structure was torn down and moved to it's present location which is 108 North 5th Street.
In the year 1836, Jordan Winston Early who was later ordained by Reverend Paul Quinn built the first A.M.E. Church
in the State of Illinois. The church was later renamed Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church after it's first pastor, Reverend
William Paul Quinn. Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church owns the historical honor of being the first A.M.E. Church west
of the Allegheny Mountains. This fact has been documented in the history records of the A.M.E. Church and refutes
all claims made by all others. As a famous entertainer once said, "You better ask somebody and get it straight"!
Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church has served our community for over 182 years. From the beginning of it's conception,
the church has provided safety and assistance to all who enter it's doors. It is the resilience of it's elders that a
great part of Brooklyn's history has been preserved. It was Mr. George McShan of Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church
who furnished Dr. Cha-Jua with much of the historical material pertaining to the church and it's founders for his
book, "America's First Black Town". Mr. George McShan along with Mrs. Magnolia Johnson (who is also a member
of the church) have provided an abundance of material, including photos, documents and oral recordings for this
web site. Were it not for these two individuals who were first to step forward with their assistance, constructing
this web site would have been very difficult.
Antioch Baptist Church
Antioch Baptist Church was founded in the home of Reverend John Richard Anderson in the year 1838. The first
church structure served as a classroom for the children of Brooklyn and neighboring Venice, Illinois during the
week and as a worship sanctuary on Sundays. The Reverend Anderson and his wife owned the parcel of land
located directly across the street from the old church structure. In 1867, they donated this parcel of land to the
church and a new sanctuary was erected November 16, 1908 which stands today.
Antioch is rich in heritage and history. This historical church was used as a "safe house" for runaway slaves on
the famous Underground Railroad system that ran through the state of Illinois. It was also instrumental in
establishing the Baptist General State Convention in Illinois.
Corinthian Church
Corinthian Church was once a magnificent structure exemplifying architectural design that was uncommon for
our area during the period of its' construction. The congregation has long abandoned the church structure in part
due to the uninhabitable condition of the building. The Historical Society has contacted the last known minister
(Robert Thomas) to gather the church's history in an effort to preserve its' story and to include it on the list of
historical sites in Brooklyn, Illinois, to be considered for designation on the National Registry Of Historic Places. To
date, we have not received any oral history or historical documents. HSOBI has met with Rev. Thomas and
inquired about his intentions for the property. His response was, "I'm waiting for the right situation." It is only one
of two historical structures located within the borders of Brooklyn, Illinois that is over one hundred years old.
HSOBI has been offered help in the form of services to evaluate the building for possible restoration to be used as
a museum and cultural center. We forwarded Rev. Thomas' reply and contact information to these sources.
There is nothing more that the Historical Society can do in terms of saving and utilizing the building for purposes
that would benefit the citizens of Brooklyn, Illinois in a positive manner.
In May, 2008, the Board of Trustees for the Village of Brooklyn, Illinois, passed a Historical Preservation Ordinance
to protect its' historical structures. This ordinance has been filed with the state of Illinois. The church structure
located at 300 Madison St. (formally Corinthian Church) is now protected under the historical architectural
ordinances of the state of the state Illinois.
Brooklyn's Historic Cemetery
On January 7, 1891, Mayor John Evans negotiated two acres of land from the Wiggins Ferry Company for the sum
of one dollar. The deed has a stipulation that the land was to be used for graveyard purposes only. The cemetery
is over one hundred years old and was never registered. It is under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Historic
Preservation Agency. HSOBI applied and received a yearly permit on behalf of the village of Brooklyn to restore and
preserve the cemetery. A cemetery workshop was conducted by Dawn Cobb and Hal Hasen of IHPA in 2008.
Students from our mentoring program participated. Volunteers from ITARP have agreed to conduct scanning and
probing for graves free of charge. We are in the process of recording the names of those interned at the cemetery
and purchasing markers for unmarked graves.
When probing and scanning has been completed, HSOBI will purchase signage and fencing for the cemetery. The
cemetery will be rededicated to the village of Brooklyn, Illinois, renamed and registered. This project is our top
priority.
| Janey B. Goode Site |
| Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church |
| Antioch Baptist Church |
| Headstones at Brooklyn Cemetery |
| Corinthian Church founded 1880 |
 |  |  |  |  |