Bucks County's Black history museum to host fundraiser to support goal of moving into permanent home

Ashley R. Williams, Bucks County Courier Times
·2 min read

As the African American Museum of Bucks County prepares to move into its first permanent home, the mobile history and culture museum is hosting a fundraiser on Dec. 2.

In partnership with the Parx Casino, the inaugural Building Our Dream cocktail reception fundraiser’s proceeds will go toward repairing the two structures on the Boone Farm property in Middletown Township.

Last year, Bucks County commissioners approved the use of the vacant farmstead on Route 413 for housing the county’s only dedicated African American history museum.

The nonprofit’s 10-year lease on the property started in October 2020 and runs through Sept. 30, 2030, for a yearly fee of just $1.

The Boone Farm on Route 413 in Middletown will be the home of the African-American Museum of Bucks County. Officials hope to open it by the end of 2021.
The Boone Farm on Route 413 in Middletown will be the home of the African-American Museum of Bucks County. Officials hope to open it by the end of 2021.

The goal is to have both buildings fully restored, furnished and operating by the end of next year.

The AAMBC’s fundraising event will include live jazz tunes, a silent auction and an award presentation to the organization’s 2021 Hidden Figures honorees.

They are Bucks County professor and historian Dr. Marion Lane, award-winning sports journalist Claire Smith and the late Sam Snipes, who died in 2018.

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Snipes represented the first Black family of residents in Levittown as a young lawyer in the 1950s.

The reception's guests will hear a brief history of the volunteer-run museum, which launched in 2014, and its future goals. They’ll also learn more about the Boone Farm property.

The eventual move onto the property would fulfill the AAMBC’s long-standing goal of having a physical space to display artifacts and offer on-site and virtual programs to the Bucks community.

The Building Our Dream cocktail reception fundraiser will take place at the Parx Casino East Banquet Room in Bensalem from 6-9 p.m on Dec. 2. Tickets are on sale for $150 per person and can be purchased on the AAMBC’s website.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: African American Museum of Bucks County to hold fundraiser for new home