Site of Aunt Elsie Brooks' Home (24 Wheat St/130 Cleveland ave)

Aunt Elsie Brooks, born a slave in Maryland, came to Dryden in 1812. After New York abolished slavery in 1827, she lived with her husband at 24 Wheat Street and worked as an herbalist and washerwoman. When she died in 1875, more than 800 people attended her funeral at St. James AME Zion Church.

**This tour is from the 2003 printed "The Southside's African-American Heritage Walking Tour" brochure prepared by the Cornell-Ithaca Partnership with research by Leslyn McBean & Ingrid Bauer; modified for PocketSights by The History Center in Tompkins County in 2022. Text is unchanged from the original printing.**