AFRICATOWN’s Lewis Quarter receives Alabama State Historic Marker

Two neighborhoods in The Africatown Community (Plateau & Magazine Point) are on The National Register for Historic Places and The Alabama State Register for Historic Places but not members of the local city of  Mobile Historic Commission. Now, thanks to the dedication of Clotilda descendant Joycelyn Davis, with the help of Mr. Jim Ellis, another neighborhood in The Africatown Community, Lewis Quarters, has been placed on The Alabama State Register for Historic Places and will soon apply to be placed on The National Register for Historic Places as part of the Africatown Community. However, it also is not a member of the local Mobile Historic Commission. When The Africatown Community (which includes Plateau, Magazine Point, Lewis Quarters, Happy Hills, Kelly Hillis & Hog Bayou) applied to be included as part of Mobile’s local Historic Commission it is rumored that they were told, “you do not qualify”.

 

Legend has it that Charlie Lewis, no relation to Cudjoe Lewis although they were best friends, paddled his boat west along 3 Mile Creek looking for more land for his family to purchase and live on after the enslaved Africans off the Clotilda were set free. He decided to purchase land near the intersection of The Three Mile Creek and Conception Street Road. That part of the creek is the widest and deepest portion of the creek being 8 feet deep. He purchased 7 acres of land in that area. and called it Lewis Quarters.