document, but it does substantiate that Abel Barbadoes did masonry work on the building, as Chloe Thomas, then a resident of the Home for Aged Colored Women, told George Ruffin in 1883: I heard from the lips of some of our most honored fathers, Cato Gardner, Father Primus Hall, Hamlet Earl, Scipio Dalton, Peter G. Smith, G.H. Holmes, that George Holmes made the first hod to carry bricks and mortar that was ever used in Boston. He invented it for the purpose of carrying bricks and mortar to build our meeting house with as he was a mason and calculated to do his part to the best of his ability. And Boston Smith, father of P.G. Smith, with the rest of his devoted brothers, was anxious to do all in his power. As Boston Smith was a master builder, he led the carpentry department...Abel Barbadoes, being a master mason also assisted. He was the father of Mrs. Catherine Barbadoes at 27 Myrtle Street. The façade of the African Meeting House is an adaptation of a design for a townhouse published by Boston architect Asher Benjamin. In addition to its religious and educational activities, the meeting house became a place for celebrations and political and anti-slavery meetings. The African Meeting House was remodeled by the congregation in the 1850s. See also List of museums focused on African Americans List of National Historic Landmarks in Boston National Register of Historic Places listings in northern Boston, Massachusetts Thomas Dalton James George Barbadoes Twelfth Baptist Church, Boston History of African Americans in Boston References Further reading Paul Dean. A discourse delivered before the African Society, at their meeting-house, in Boston, Mass. on the abolition of the slave trade by the government of the United States of America, July 14, 1819. Boston: Nathaniel Coverly, 1819. George A. Levesque. "Inherent Reformers-Inherited Orthodoxy: Black Baptists in Boston, 1800-1873". Journal of Negro History, Vol. 60, No. 4 (October 1975), pp. 491–525. External links African Meeting House Museum of African American History website New York Times article mentioning African-American history-oriented tourism in Boston 19th century in Boston Abolitionism in the United States African-American history in Boston African-American museums in Massachusetts Asher Benjamin buildings Baptist churches in Boston Beacon Hill, Boston Churches on the Underground Railroad Culture of Boston Museums in Boston National Historic Landmarks in Boston Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Churches completed in