ABRAHAM HALL

This frame gable-front building was erected by the Benevolent Sons and Daughters of Abraham as Rebecca Lodge No. 6 to support the African American communities of Rossville and Muirkirk. Both were populated by freedmen employed at Muirkirk Iron Furnace, providing an opportunity for non-agricultural employment and the growth of a stable African American community. Constructed in the aftermath of the Civil War to assist newly emancipated enslaved people in becoming self-sufficient, Abraham Hall was an outgrowth of the federal Freedmen’s Bureau, established in 1865. Builder John W. Jackson was also responsible for the construction of numerous houses in the community. The hall provided meeting, social, and religious event space; it served for over twenty-five years as a schoolhouse, later as a union hall, and then as a Jobs Corps center. It is one of two surviving in Prince George’s County; the other is St. Mary’s Beneficial Society Hall (1892) at 14825 Pratt Street in Upper Marlboro. While falling into disrepair by the 1970s, it was restored in 1991.