No one knows the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood, its people, its important buildings and its history quite like Shirley Satterfield, whose family has lived in town for six generations.
By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
No one knows the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood, its people, its important buildings and its history quite like Shirley Satterfield, whose family has lived in town for six generations.
Who better, then, to narrate a recently launched cell phone tour that the Historical Society of Princeton had created to tell the story of the historically black section of Princeton that has evolved over the years.
The self-guided tour, covering 40 different stops that would take someone up to three hours to go through one at one time, includes old photos and documents that are available to smartphone users. Regular cell phone users only can access the audio portion.
Funded with a $4,068 grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, the tour was created with help from Ms. Satterfield, a retired Princeton High School guidance counselor who grew up in the community in the days when there were two Princetons — one white, one black.
”I grew up here in the 40s and the 50s during the time of segregation,” she said in an interview. Blacks, she recalled, could not go to the whites only YMCA on Nassau Street, so they went to “colored” YMCA located where the Arts Council of Princeton is today.
She supplied old photos and is the voice that listeners will hear explain the stories behind places like the First Baptist Church, the “colored” YMCA, and the home of the late Albert Hinds, for whom the tour is named.
It’s akin to the same experience anyone would get if they were walking behind Ms. Satterfield, a past trustee of the Historical Society and now member of its advisory board, on one of her walking tours of the neighborhood.
Eve Mandel, director of programs and visitor services at the Historical Society, said the cell phone tour captures “the way Shirley gives it.”
The photos came partly from the society’s collection and partly from Ms. Satterfield’s. One is a group photo of the 1908 football team from the “colored” YMCA, an image showing young players sitting outside on the front steps of a building, with men in suits behind them.
”I hope they know the rich history of Princeton, especially the African-American experience in Princeton,” Ms. Satterfield said when asked what she hoped people get out of taking the tour. Ms. Mandel said the cell phone tour went live on Sept. 28, on what was annual museum day. Ms. Mandel said the Historical Society is eager to get feedback from the public. She said if the tour is a success, the society would look to do similar ones for other historic neighborhoods .
For smart phone users, the tour can be accessed at http://myoncell.mobi/HsoP. Those with cell phones can call 609-436-4092, with maps of the various sites available online at www.princetonhistory.org, or by visiting the society’s office at the Bainbridge House on Nassau Street Wednesday to Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.