This story is part of an ongoing journalistic initiative to rally the community and the country around a critical, but endangered, historical site: Sandy Ground, the nation’s oldest free Black settlement still inhabited by descendants of its pioneers.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Janise Laboard-Casimir vividly remembers brimming with excitement when her class at PS 30 in Westerleigh took a trip to Historic Richmond Town. The staff in period garb showed wide-eyed children how their ancestors churned butter and lived in a time before homes were equipped with electricity and running water.
Since then, she dreamed the hometown of her ancestors, Sandy Ground, could become a historic village where school children could visit and learn of its history as the nation’s oldest free Black settlement continuously inhabited by descendants.
“I almost think it’s a full circle moment, because I remember being fascinated on my school trip, but I didn’t really understand the gravity of it,” said the Sandy Ground descendant, and Rossville AME Zion Church historian. “I have always envisioned Sandy Ground just like Richmond Town with people walking around in period clothing and talking about what life was like in the community in the 1800s.”
Jessica Phillips, CEO of Historic Richmond Town believes Laboard-Casimir’s dream can become reality. In fact, she imagines Sandy Ground becoming a living-history open-air museum similar to Historic Richmond Town, but with an important difference: Sandy Ground is already an authentic historic community — not a recreated one.
“They have an incredible historical asset, not just the properties, but the story… a lot of similar places to Historic Richmond Town are imagined communities… Sandy Ground is a real place,” said Phillips, noting Richmond Town was established in 1958 as a partnership between the Staten Island Historical Society and New York City. It grew into a 100‑acre museum village containing original and relocated structures from the 17th to early 20th centuries…