Eliza Freeman returned to Bridgeport around 1855 to work as a domestic in the home of a well-to-do sea captain, and Mary (who is known to have been a hotel chef in the city) followed her around 1861.

[6] In 1831, Joel Freeman (1795-1865), brother of Mary and Eliza, purchased land where Whiting Street ended at Bridgeport Harbor; he moved a vacant shop building to the site and apparently converted it to his residence.

The new organization erected a permanent home, officially the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, in 1835 at the southwest corner of Broad and Gregory streets.

The Stratfield Special School for Colored Children was built soon after (1845), following a petition for State funds by Joel Freeman, at the southeast intersection of Main and Whiting streets.

[9] In addition, there was a seaside resort hotel ('Duncan House') built in 1853 that catered to a well-to-do African American clientele from the major metropolitan centers of the Northeast.

In 1895, orator and author Willis Augustus Hodges, who had been an abolitionist in Brooklyn, New York,[10] addressed the "Young Colored Men's Republican Club" of Bridgeport on the topic of not being misled by "Negro Democrats.

[11] At the time, southern legislatures dominated by white Democrats were passing new constitutions and laws to disfranchise blacks throughout the South and prevent them from voting.

Blacks were essentially shut out of the official political system in the South from the turn of the century until after passage of federal civil rights legislation in the 1960s.

For one, rebuilding, as opposed to restoration, was reported as possibly required (demolition of non-historic additions to the properties in the Summer of 2013 proved that both structures were, in fact, quite sound).

A newly formed Mary & Eliza Freeman Center for History and Community set about fundraising, including appeals to organizations such as the 1772 Foundation and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The city sold the houses to the Freeman Center, clearing up a dispute over back taxes and fees with an earlier organization seeking to preserve the homes.