chat loading...
Skip to Main Content

Ancestral Bridges

“Ancestral Bridges: Celebrating Black and Afro-Indigenous families who lived and worked in Amherst in the 18th through early 20th centuries,” an exhibit of historical photographs and artifacts, was on view in Frost Library through the summer of 2024.

Chesley Pettyjohn Family - Photograph


c. 1900, 39 Paige Street, Amherst

About Chelsey Pettyjohn Family

On July 5, 1905, Frank E. Paige deeded the house that was to become the last on the Paige Street cul-de-sac, to Chesley Pettyjohn, a member of an African-American family. His daughter Bessie later married into the African-American Bias family, thereby acquiring the abutting property at 44 Beston Street.