One Book Self-Guided Tour Event

Stop 1 Destination: IHM Sisters Motherhouse
610 W Elm Ave, Monroe, MI 48162
Theresa Maxis was born in Baltimore in 1810, of a Haitian mother and British father. In 1845, she left the Oblates of Providence and set out for Monroe where she co-founded the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Today the Motherhouse is home to approximately 105 IHM Sisters and to offices and services supporting the IHM congregation. For more information, visit: http://www.sistersofihm.org/ who-we-are/ihm-history/theresa-maxis.html

Stop 2 Destination: Haircutters/Wise Guy
Not the location of the actual event – exact location unknown
6 E Front St, Monroe, MI 48161
An escaped slave, William Wells Brown, lived in Monroe in the winter of 1835. He would go on to become the nation’s first black playwright, novelist, historian and travel writer, as well as an abolitionist. In his novel “Clotel,” he shared his experience of setting up a barber shop in Monroe after the only barber in town turn him down for a job. For more information, visit: https://historicmissourians.shsmo.org/historicmissourians/name/b/brownw/

William Wells Brown

Stop 3 Destination: Formerly The Uptown Bar
8 West Front Street, Monroe, MI 48161
COLORED MAN SUES RESTAURANT KEEPER: Claims Damages
as a Result of Waiters Refusing to Serve Him Food
Source: Record-Commercial, Thursday, April 11, 1918 page 4
For more information, visit: City Restaurant

Stop 4 Destination: Armory Opera House Historical Marker
(shared with Boy Scouts of Monroe County)
E. 2nd at Washington St, Monroe, MI 48161Booker T. Washingon, a former slave from Virginia, founded the
Tuskegee Institute, the vocational school for blacks in Alabama now known as Tuskegee University. He spoke in Monroe on January 30, 1899 as part of Monroe High School’s winter lecture series.
For more information, visit:
Armory Opera House 1
Armory Opera House 2

Stop 5 Destination: Loranger Square
E 1st St, Monroe, MI 48161
FIERY CROSS WAS BURNED IN SQUARE
A fiery cross was burned in front of the court house here Saturday night about 8 o’clock. Who placed the cross is a mystery. No one was seen in the vicinity of the county building about the time the cross started to burn. Although the down town streets were crowded with Christmas shoppers very few people know of the burning of the cross until after it had been put out. Two young men passing the court house knocked the cross down. The cross was about five feet long.
This is the first attempt to burn a cross in the city of Monroe, but
several have been burned in villages in the county.
For more information, visit: Source: Monroe Evening News,
Monday, December 24th, 1923 page 1b Loranger Square

Stop 6 Destination: Woodland Cemetery
438 Jerome St, Monroe, MI 48161

Stop 7 Destination: Monroe County Museum System
126 South Monroe St, Monroe MI 48161
Robert Duncanson was born to a free black family in upstate New York. He was one the first African-American painters to garner international
acclaim and was especially noted for his landscapes. The Monroe County Museum has an exhibit case dedicated to his family. A tombstone
was installed in 2019 to mark his burial plot in Woodland Cemetery.For more information, visit: https://www.monroenews.com/news/20191206/efforts-recognized-to-install-tombstone-at-local-artists-burial-site
https://www.monroenews.com/news/20210125/inaugural-painting-
choice-has-monroe-connections
For full articles visit: Robert Duncanson 1
Robert Duncanson 2