Hidden history

New museum highlights contributions of black pioneers

Greater Allen Development Corporation board members, from left, Terri Pinkleton, Mary Johnson, Elsenna Jordan, James Shackleford, Lori Hickman, the Rev. Cheryl Wilcox, and, in back, Charles Jackson, helped make the Melbourne Founders’ Museum at Crane Creek a reality. TANAIYA AUBRIE

With its stylish condominiums along the shores of the Indian River Lagoon; the Health First Holmes Regional Center; the stores along New Haven Avenue; the oceanside luxury homes, it’s hard to imagine the untamed wilderness that Melbourne was after the Civil War. Nevertheless, three men who began their lives enslaved chose to battle that hostile environment to settle the area. 

Shortly after the passing of the Homestead Act of 1866, Peter Wright, Wright Brothers and Balaam Allen left slavery to search for a better life in a land that held promise. They joined white settlers Richard W. Goode, his father John Goode, Thomas Mason and Cornthwaite John Hector in the village originally known as Crane Creek and later as Melbourne — so named because its first postmaster, Hector, had spent considerable time in Melbourne, Australia. 

Peter Wright and his brother, Dick, had left Georgia seeking a better future. Wright Brothers headed south from West Virginia searching for work, which he found at a pineapple farm on the beachside of Melbourne. Not much has been written about Balaam Allen, other than that he acquired property through the Homestead Act — like the Wrights and Brothers. Peter Wright’s land was on the north side of Crane Creek; Allen’s and Brothers’ homesteads ran along the southern shoreline. 

“Whether they arrived separately or together is not known, but they settled along the banks of the river that is known as Crane Creek,” said James Shackleford, president of the Greater Allen Development Corporation, which recently unveiled the Melbourne Founders’ Museum at Crane Creek.

Melbourne’s Front Street before the 1923 fire that destroyed the downtown area. Front Street was the city’s original downtown hub. BREVARD COUNTY GENEALOGY AND ARCHIVES DEPARTMENT

Only a couple of buildings dot the shores of Crane Creek in Melbourne around the turn of the century. BREVARD COUNTY GENEALOGY AND ARCHIVES DEPARTMENT PHOTOS

LESSONS

The Florida East Coast Railway corridor, which ran down the eastern coastline of the state, gave the railroad a presence in Melbourne when this early post card of the mouth of Crane Creek was printed.

Through insightful documentation, the museum highlights the importance of pioneer black residents. “They were early businessmen and leaders,” said Roz Foster, Brevard County’s official historian. 

From seven and a half acres along Crane Creek, Brothers fashioned a successful citrus grove. His son, William, was the first black child born in Melbourne. When not helping at the grove, William attended classes with black children at the area’s first school: a one-room building that was later relocated to the campus of Florida Institute of Technology. In the shed-like Little Red Schoolhouse, white children would have school in the morning; black children, like William, were taught in the afternoon. 

In 1909, a one-room school for black youngsters was built, complete with two rows of seats — with two students sitting in a seat. As the community grew, so did schools for black students. Melbourne Vocational School was built where Brothers Park is now located. The school served black students until it burned in 1953. Black students then attended school at a building on the old naval base at Melbourne Airport, until Stone School opened in 1958. 

Peter Wright became the area’s first mail carrier with the aid of his catboat, Nellie. His brother had settled north in Titusville where he, too, was a mail carrier. He used his Dolphin catboat to transfer mail from New Smyrna to Titusville, where “Captain” Peter Wright would pick it up to carry it down to Malabar in a bi-weekly route. The mail carriers connected the settlers with the rest of the world and Peter Wright’s arrival, which he announced by blowing on a large conch shell, was cause for excitement.

“Every trip Wright made was an adventure,” South Brevard Historical Society President Georgiana Kjerulff was quoted as saying by Florida Today during the 1991 dedication of a bronze marker honoring Wright. 

“Sometimes he had to pole all night to get to Titusville on time. Every now and then, he had to poke an alligator away.”

After steamboats and railroads made sailboat mail delivery obsolete, the enterprising Wright sold his property — facilitating the development of the southern part of Melbourne — and moved north to Cocoa, where he thrived as the owner of an orange grove. 

The Florida East Coast Railway’s depot at Oleander Avenue in Melbourne connected the town with the rest of the world. BREVARD COUNTY GENEALOGY AND ARCHIVES DEPARTMENT

SPIRITUAL CENTER

Most of the antique furnishings in the Founders’ Museum, such as this four-poster bed, were donated by the community, including the North Brevard Heritage Foundation. TANAIYA AUBRIE

These hardworking settlers were also men of faith. The Melbourne Founders’ Museum is housed in the tiny cottage where, in 1884, Wright and Mary Brothers met with Balaam and Salina Allen, and Robert and Carrie Lipscomb to organize a place of worship. The following year, the first church structure was built for Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church — Melbourne’s first house of worship. 

“The church was founded in the living room of that house,” Shackleford said. 

The house was saved from demolition by the Greater Allen Development Corporation. “Some apartments were going up on the south side of Crane Creek, and we were offered the house if we could get it moved,” he said.

“We knew we had to do it, because you can’t go back in history once it is gone.”

Northrop Grumman proved to be the home’s savior, providing funds to cover the $35,000 it cost to transport the 900-square-foot structure two blocks through woods, during the time of the pandemic, to its current location on Brothers Avenue — across from Greater Allen Church. The house has since been restored and outfitted with period appropriate furniture to frame the exhibits showcasing local history. 

The museum explores the growth of Melbourne into the 20th century, when George W. Hopkins of the Union Cypress Company created the area’s first big industry: a sawmill in what is now the southern part of Melbourne. Known then as Hopkins, the company town was the terminus of the Union Cypress Railroad, built by Hopkins to transport timber. Headhunters for the company enticed black workers to the area with the promise of good jobs. At its peak, Hopkins boasted its own hospital, post office and company store. 

Dovetailing the stories of the historical home and the museum exhibits is Moving History, a film by award-winning documentary filmmaker Jennifer East. A preview can be seen at gofund.me/b0f35861, where they are taking donations to support the all-volunteer museum. 

“Black settlers were instrumental in shaping the community we know today,” Foster said.

Melbourne Founders’ Museum, housed in the original family home of Melbourne pioneer Wright Brothers, has been outfitted with period furnishings, including one of the original church pews from Allen Chapel and a vintage kitchen stove. TANAIYA AUBRIE PHOTOS

MELBOURNE FOUNDERS’ MUSEUM
AT CRANE CREEK

1001 Brothers Ave., Melbourne

321.727.3913 | melbournefounders.org

10 a.m. until 3:30 p.m., the second Saturday of the month

Admission: Children, 12 and under, are free; 

adults, $10 suggested donation

Special tours can be arranged by calling 

321.727.3913 or 321.432.5774.

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