Sculpture commemorates lost Frostburg community

Sep. 20—FROSTBURG — A new sculpture commemorating the lost Brownsville and Park Avenue community in Frostburg had a ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday.

Named Anchors of Endurance, the sculpture is the first to fully visualize the Black neighborhood of Brownsville after its residents were displaced due to the construction of the Normal School, now known as Frostburg State University.

By 1920, the neighborhood contained up to 125 families, but by the late 1960s it was entirely enveloped by the university's campus. The state of Maryland purchased the properties to allow for the growth of the campus.

The sculpture is located in the courtyard of the Frostburg Museum, next to St. Michael Catholic Church on Main Street.

How it started

The planning, grant funding and construction of the sculpture were carried out by the nonprofit FrostburgFirst and the Brownsville Project.

Deirdre Robertson, executive director of FrostburgFirst, secured grant funding from the Maryland State Arts Council in 2021.

"I had seen the work that the Brownsville Project had done on campus," Robertson said. "But there was nothing permanent downtown."

From there, FrostburgFirst collaborated with the Brownsville Project and its founder, Clory Jackson.

The site is the first Brownsville memorial located outside of Frostburg State's campus, and it will allow for the neighborhood's legacy to be recognized by even more people traveling through Frostburg's popular Main Street area.

The Brownsville Project

Jackson, a descendant of Brownsville residents, is ecstatic about the sculpture.

"It's incredible," Jackson said. "I still haven't fully processed it yet."

Jackson grew up in Frostburg, but had no idea about the existence of the Brownsville community until she learned that her great-great-great grandmother had purchased just the second plot of land in the neighborhood.

"My family has been in the Frostburg area since the 1700s," Jackson said.

One of the main goals of Brownsville Project as a whole is to give people a sense of belonging in Frostburg, empowering them through the teaching of difficult history and transformative justice.

"This is something that is representative of the growth of the (Brownsville) community, but also it's dismantling," said Jackson.

According to Jackson, the sculpture gives the current Black community a permanent and solidified place in the city.

"We were here, we've always been here and we're still here," she said.

The Brownsville Project began in 2018 through the work of Jackson, and looks ahead to further uncovering the rich Black history in Western Maryland through community outreach and theater.Extensive Research

Although many people in and around Frostburg have heard of Brownsville, many have never actually understood exactly what it used to look like.

By using analysis from the forensic genealogy group Backstories, the deeds from most of the properties were uncovered as well as its exact location within Frostburg.

Pamela Moore, a genealogy researcher for Backstories, said at the ribbon cutting ceremony that they used Google Maps to trace the streets around FSU's campus.

"No definitive map depicted the shift of the Brownsville community before this," Moore said.

According to Moore, the deeds of the lost properties will soon be publicly available for descendants to see the actual signatures of their relatives.Hand crafted

The Anchors of Endurance statue was hand-crafted by artists Marguerite de Messières and Tsvetomir Naydenov, who wanted to show the "beautiful complexity" of Brownsville's past.

"It's one of the most meaningful pieces we've ever made," Naydenov said at the dedication.

According to Messières, they wanted to build the sculpture entirely by hand to represent how Brownsville was hand crafted itself.

"The community we describe is colorful, complex," she said.

Everything, including the letters of the family names on the statue, was done completely by hand.

It has no concrete shape and both sides of the display contain colorful maps of the Brownsville and Park Avenue community.

Each plot of land is labeled with the family that previously owned it, stamped into the steel by hand.

More to come

Jackson said research is still ongoing for the sculpture, as more deeds and family records are being uncovered.

The plan is to have more name-stamping ceremonies on the sculpture each year.

"There's so much rich history that fell to the wayside," Jackson said.

By continuing the "truth and reconciliation" of the Brownsville Project, Jackson said that healing, repair and celebration for the lost community will come.

To learn more about the Brownsville Project, visit