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Honor the Legacy of Carpenter’s Creek

Jennie’s Legacy was established in 2021 to promote the Black history of this iconic Pensacola landmark and to advocate for the equitable restoration of the waterway and the surrounding community.

Who Was Jennie Hudgins?

Born in 1865, Jennie Hudgins was an African-American woman who owned 10 acres of land adjacent to the Creek in the area of the present-day Springhill neighborhood. Jennie moved from Perote, Alabama to Pensacola in the early 1900’s where she lived with her daughter, Minnie, her son-in-law Sim Dawson and the four Dawson children, on present-day Lynell Street in the then rural community of East Brent.

Copy-of-1930-Census-Escambia-Fla-Jannie-Hudgins-Family

Commerce & Community

The Creek was both a source of commerce and community for Jennie’s family. Jennie and Minnie laundered clothes for money for white residents and baptized new members of the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, a church in the adjacent Goulding area, that Jennie helped found in 1922. The history of the Dawson family and their connection to the Creek has been documented extensively in the writing of Jennie’s great-granddaughter, Ora Wills.

Ora (Dawson) Wills (L), Jennie Hudgins (seated), Doris Dawson (R)

A Community Gathering Place Lost

In 1956, Sim and Minnie sold 8 acres of the family’s land to the Dolly Madison Development company. The transaction led to the establishment of the Springhill neighborhood, a residential community of mid-century modern homes exclusively for white families. Though the Black community was assured that their right to access the Creek would be preserved, this commitment was soon re-negged on. Subsequently the section of the Creek bounded by Davis Highway and Ninth Avenue to the West and East and Brent Lane to the North evolved into one of the most densely populated commercial corridors in Pensacola.  Sacred Heart Hospital, Cordova Mall, and national retail and restaurant chains dominate the landscape while the Creek hides in plain sight.

A Cultural Landscape Erased

In December 2021, The Cultural Landscape Foundation featured Carpenter’s Creek in the Landslide Race & Space report with a goal of spotlighting this at-risk cultural landscape and highlighting its Black heritage. Much as the development of the federal highway system obliterated Black communities throughout the US (including in Pensacola), the aggressive commercial development of East Brent decimated a natural asset and a community gathering place beloved by neighbors Black and white.

Obligation & Opportunity

Jennie’s Legacy will advance efforts in four areas in collaboration with existing public, private, and community stakeholders.  

Cultural History & Narrative
Cultural History & Narrative
Conservation & Land Use
Conservation & Land Use
Public Space & Access
Public Space & Access
Environmental Education
Environmental Education
Carpenter's Creek Study Area
Author and historian Ora Wills, and her daughter Angela Kyle photographed on Carpenter’s Creek

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