FRONT SIDE:
Sand Town, the oldest African American neighborhood in the area
of Spring Hill, in Mobile, Alabama, was established before 1845, by
former enslaved and free, indigenous people of color. Sand Town residents
built their own homes, school and places of worship and founded the Rising
Sons Cemetery. It is a thriving community populated by multigenerational
descendants of the original, proud and hard-working property owners.
The Spring Hill School for Colored applied to open in 1873 and remained
open through the 1948-49 school year. The Mt. Hebron Methodist
Church was formed in 1847. After a fire in 1884, a new church was
constructed at the corner of Spring Hill Avenue and Knowles Street.
Sand Town ancestors, former residents and veterans are buried in the
Rising Sons Cemetery, located at the end of Knowles Street.
In 1937, under the guidance of Spring Hill College, St. Augustine
Catholic Church, a log cabin, was built for Colored Catholics in the
area. It existed until 1963, when many African American Catholics in
Spring Hill began attending St. Ignatius Catholic Church. Windows and
doors from St. Augustine Church are installed in the Mt. Hebron A. M. E.
Zion Church.
BACK SIDE:
The community and descendants of Sand Town
grew from the original founding families
and residents listed below, who resided on
Knowles Street:
Christopher Knowles, Lewis Morgan,
Elizabeth Johnson, Theodore Johnson,
Manuel Milligan
Originally, Sand Town was comprised of land
in and around Spring Hill Avenue and Knowles
Street and eventually grew to include Mordecai
and Sheips Lanes and land to Three Mile Creek.
Historical Sand Town was established before 1845. Land for the The Rising Sons Cemetery was donated in part by Gilbert Fields. The Mt. Hebron Methodist Church was formed in 1874 on land donated in part by John Bernard.
Both the cemetery and church are located on Knowles Street. Today, Sand Town's boundaries are from Three - Mile Creek to just north of The Cedars and east to west from Dilston Street to Ziegler Boulevard.
Sand Town
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