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A2AI live in Piedmont. I never have lived in Woodside or Los Altos; what I know about those cities is what I have read about them.Positives about Piedmont:Excellent schools;Strong sense of community (Fourth of July parade, Beautification Foundation, Education Foundation, Historical Society, etc.);In-town casual carpooling and proximity to BART make commuting to San Francisco practicable;From some parts of the city, spectacular views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate - just stepped outside and took this photo (a bit overcast this afternoon)…Factors that might lead one to prefer Woodside or Los Altos:Nearer Silicon Valley;Homes situated on larger lots (being on the near side of the East Bay Hills and having seen major development following the S.F. earthquake, Piedmont has multimillion dollar homes with just a few yards of greenery separating them from one another).

Historic Hunterfly Road Houses (Hunterfly Road Houses |)Sometimes, archaeologists and historians are only able to see clearly when they look outside the box. That, anyway, seemed to be the outlook of historian James Hurley and pilot Joseph Hays when, in 1968, they flew a plane over Brooklyn, , not only looking outside the box, but above it.[1] They were looking for the remnants of a village founded 130 years earlier, the free Black community of Weeksville. Here is the history of Weeksville and the efforts to preserve Brooklyn's forgotten African American community.At the turn of the 19th century, the city of Brooklyn was known as the “slaveholding capital” of New York State and was home to the highest concentration of enslaved people north of the Mason-Dixon Line.[2] But, after New York State abolished slavery in 1827[3] , free black professionals bought land in what is now Crown Heights and founded Weeksville, a self-supporting community of African American Freedman, which grew to become the second-largest free black community in Antebellum America.[4] By 1855, over 520 free African Americans lived in Weeksville, including some of the leading activists in the Abolitionist and Equal Suffrage movements.[5]1839 deed of Sale for land in Brooklyn’s 9th Ward, which became Weeksville (Brooklyn Historical Society)Weeksville was carved out of central Brooklyn when the Panic of 1837 moved wealthy landowners in the area to start liquidating their holdings.[6] Abolitionist and black community leader Henry C. Thompson, a free African American and land investor, purchased 32 lots from Edward Copeland, a politically minded European American and Brooklyn grocer, who in 1835, bought the land from an heir of John Lefferts.[7] By the time the Revolutionary War began, most of Central Brooklyn belonged to the Bedford branch of the Lefferts family, who were among the largest landowners, and slaveholders, in Kings County.[8]There was ample opportunity for land acquisition during this time, as many prominent land-holding families sold off their properties during an intense era of land speculation.[9]Thompson began selling those plots to other free black Brooklynites, including James Weeks, who purchased two plots in 1838, built a home near what is now Schenctady Avenue and Dean Street, and lived in the community that bears his name.[10] Weeksville grew until its borders ran approximately to what are now East New York, Ralph, Troy, and Atlantic Avenues.Sylvanus Smith, one of Weeksville’s original founders circa 1870 (Sylvanus Smith (1831–1911) •)James Weeks, Sylvanus Smith, and the other original founders of Weeksville intentionally created a community, nestled among the slopes and valleys of Bedford Hills, that was geographically separate from the rest of Brooklyn. The seclusion helped ensure that community members would be safe and that Weeksville residents would have access to education, economic self-sufficiency, and political self-determination.[11]For free blacks in early 19th century New York, political self-determination and voting rights were directly tied to land ownership. In 1821, the New York State Constitution widened the franchise to include all white men regardless of whether they owned property but established a $250 property requirement for black men.[12]Weeksville was the answer: a community of free black landowners. In addition to several landowners from Africa, almost 40 percent of residents were southern-born.[13] Nearly one-third of the men over 21 owned land.Colored School No. 2 (PS 68) (the Brooklyn Historical Society)Weeksville not only boasted the highest rate of property and business ownership in any African American urban community at the time, but also the community supported the nation’s first African American newspaper, the Freedman’s Torchlight,[14] with a 93 percent literacy rate, they were more educated than their caucasian counterparts.[15] The community built Colored School No. 2, which, after the Civil War, became PS 68, the first integrated school in the country.[16]Other cultural organizations included the Aged; Howard Colored Orphan Asylum; Berean Baptist Church; Bethel A.M.E. Church; and the Citizens Union Cemetery.[17] Henry Highland Garnet founded the African Civilization Society (ACS) in 1858, with the intention of encouraging blacks Americans to emigrate to Africa.[18] Garnet envisioned educated black Americans moving to the African Continent as cultural missionaries to lead the economic, political, and moral development of the various indigenous peoples.Residents were moved by the idea of a free black colony in Liberia because Weeksville was founded during the Back to Africa Movement, which has been called the “golden age” of Black Nationalism.[19] While some Weeksville residents, including the clergymen Henry Highland Garnet and T. McCants Stewart,[20] did emigrate to Liberia, most of the community’s efforts regarding freedom, emancipation, education, and self-determination played out closer to home.First Edition The Freedman's Torchlight (The Freedman and The Freedman's Torchlight : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive)For example, according to a notice, published by the African Civilization Society in 1866:The Freedman’s Torchlight was “devoted to the temporal and spiritual interests of the Freedman, and adapted to their present need of instruction in regard to simple truths and principles relating to their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”[21]The paper contained reading lessons that were used to teach literacy to members of the community who had been denied that training under slavery.[22]Weeksville not only offered more opportunities for education, employment and political enfranchisement for African Americans than anywhere else in Brooklyn, but also the community functioned as one of the principal safe havens for black New Yorkers threatened by the 1863 draft riots.[23]New York’s black community was targeted during the city’s 1863 draft riots (the Tenement Museum)When opposition to the Civil War prompted Irish New Yorkers to target African Americans during bloody violence that bested the city’s police forces, and could only be broken by the arrival of Union Soldiers.[24] Working-class Irish immigrants had suffered inflation, food shortages, and virulent discrimination and unemployment[25] ; but the match that touched off the powder keg was a set of new Draft Laws which took effect on July 11th. The Draft Laws stated that stated that all single men (including immigrants who had filed for citizenship) between the ages of twenty and forty-five and all married men between twenty and thirty-five could be called upon to fight the ongoing Civil War on behalf of the Union Army.[26] Another statute of the Act stated that if a man could afford to pay $300, he could hire a substitute to be drafted in the wealthy man’s place.[27]Weeksville residents provided a haven for other New Yorkers. The Colored Orphan’s Asylum on West 44th Street was set afire, but thankfully all 237 children inside escaped safely.[28] At least eleven African American men were murdered during the three day riot, and fear of continued violence ultimately contributed to a 20% decrease in the African American population of New York City during the Civil War.[29]The community’s focus on both self-determination and social justice for other African Americans made Weeksville home to extraordinary pioneers and community leaders. For example, Junius C. Morel was principal of Colored School No. 2, and also a nationally recognized journalist, who wrote for the Colored American, North Star, Frederick Douglass’ Paper, and Christian Recorder.[30] In his writing, he advocated for both African American independence and racial and gender integration in public schools.Sarah Smith Garnet was one of Sylvanus Smith’s daughters.(Susan Smith McKinney Steward, M.D., '1870 (1847-1918))The women of Weeksville were also some of the most accomplished women in the country. For example, Susan Smith McKinney Steward became the first African American female doctor in New York State[31] , and her sister, Sarah Smith Tompkins Garner, became Brooklyn’s first female school principal[32] and was the founder of the Equal Suffrage League of Brooklyn, the first suffrage organization founded by and for black women.[33] Together, both sisters founded the Women’s Loyal Union of New York and Brooklyn, another black women’s suffrage organization.According to Judith Wellman’s Brooklyn’s Promised Land, in 1850, 9.5 percent of Weeksville residents were property owners, double the rate of greater Brooklyn’s population.[34] Many of these holdings included small farms, where locals raised hogs and grew potatoes, corn, vegetables, and melons, some of which they likely sold in the bustling markets of far-off Manhattan. Residents supplemented their diets with foraged nuts and berries, and supplies from local grocery stores, several of which were black-owned.[35]This tintype, of the “Weeksville Lady,” was found as part of excavations of the Weeksville site. We don’t know much about her, except that she was likely a prominent member of her community. (COURTESY OF WEEKSVILLE HERITAGE CENTER)The community thrived and grew throughout the 19th century, but, by the 1880s, Brooklyn had grown up around Weeksville, and it ceased to be secluded. Instead, Eastern Parkway came roaring through town, and residents began to disperse.[36] By the 1930s, an influx of European immigrants and Brooklyn’s expanding city grid consumed the enclave of Weeksville, which became largely forgotten.Then came an airplane. In 1968, Pratt researchers James Hurley and Joseph Hays found references to Weeksville in 19th century histories of Brooklyn.[37] Hurley was a historian, and Hays was a pilot. Soaring over the sprawling city, they spotted a historic blip in the grid of brick and asphalt: four structures from the original Weeksville. Constructed between 1840 and 1880 as one- and two-story homes, they had originally faced Hunterfly Road, a Native American trail converted into a village lane.[38] Archaeologists and activists immediately set to work excavating the structures, which they dubbed the Hunterfly Road Houses. The homes are the oldest standing structures in Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights, and are the only homes left that were part of Weeksville.[39]1970s era community preservation project (via the Weeksville Heritage Center)Hurley and Hays began a campaign against time to save the homes, for the area had been targeted for a host of urban renewal projects. In 1969, Bed-Stuy resident Joan Maynard created the Society for the Preservation of Weeksville[40] and Bedford Stuyvesant History in order to discover and preserve Weeksville’s past and to restore the Hunterfly Road Houses.The Hunterfly Road Houses were designated New York City Landmarks in 1970, and after all four were added to the National Register of Historic Places, the Society purchased the houses in 1973 .[41] More than twenty years later, the Weeksville Heritage Cente. opened in 2005. In 2014, the Center expanded, adding a new, modern building. Today, the Weeksville Heritage Center offers tours, public programs, and research facilities to “document, preserve and interpret the history of free African American communities in Weeksville, Brooklyn and beyond.”[42]The Weeksville Heritage Center remains a hub of Black cultural life. Now, in keeping with Weeksville’s legacy of culinary self-determination, Heritage Center staff have turned their attention toward Central Brooklyn’s contemporary food scene. As part of a project called Meals as Collective Memory, [43] Weeksville staff and consultants have interviewed dozens of local Black restaurant owners, with the aim of creating a “living archive” of food in a changing Brooklyn.[44] The idea is that local, black-owned restaurants are the heirs of Weeksville’s legacy, and their efforts deserve documentation and support.A community dinner to celebrate the "Meals as Collective Memory" project at Weeksville Heritage Center (The Culinary Legacy of Brooklyn's First Free Black Community)Footnotes[1] The history of Weeksville: When Crown Heights had the second-largest free black community in the U.S. | 6sqft[2] John Jay's new database provides 35,000+ records of slavery in New York | 6sqft[3] New-York Historical Society[4] Before NYC's Slave Market, Freedmen from Africa Were Allowed to Own Farmland | 6sqft[5] Beyond the Village and Back: Historic Weeksville, Brooklyn - GVSHP | Preservation | Off the Grid[6] Panic of 1837 | Armstrong Economics[7] http://Wellman, J. (2014). Brooklyn's Promised Land: The Free Black Community of Weeksville, New York. NYU Press[8] Slavery in Brooklyn - An American Family Grows in Brooklyn[9] Weeksville, Brooklyn: The Remarkable Story of One of America's First Free Black Towns[10] Recovering Weeksville[11] Recovering Weeksville[12] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nycourts.gov/history/legal-history-new-york/documents/Publications_1821-NY-Constitution.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwih_ZGm18fnAhVNG80KHX6jDLwQFjAEegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw1q89_6n0G2qer3oeMSwQPu[13] http://Ramirez, Anthony (June 5, 2005). "Haven for Blacks in Civil War Riots Now Safeguards History". The New York Times.[14] The Freedman and The Freedman's Torchlight : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive[15] Brooklyn Hamlet of Free African-Americans Was Ahead of Its Time[16] Building of the Day: 1634 Dean Street | Brownstoner[17] Citizens’ Union/Mount Pleasant Cemetery[18] The African Civilization Society (1858-1869) •[19] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/04/26/is-go-back-to-africa-always-an-insult-heres-a-brief-history-of-american-back-to-africa-movements/%3foutputType=amp[20] Thomas McCants Stewart, jurist, educator, author and civil rights leader[21] The Freedman and The Freedman's Torchlight : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive[22] How a Movement to Send Freed Slaves to Africa Created Liberia[23] On This Day: 1863, The New York City Draft Riots - Tenement Museum[24] The New York City Draft Riots of 1863[25] Did Firefighters Start or End 1863 Draft Riots — or Both?[26] Selective Draft Law Cases - Significance[27] Congress passes Civil War conscription act[28] The New York Draft Riots and the burning of the Colored Orphan Asylum[29] Untitled Document[30] https://coloredconventions.org/women-higher-education/biographies/junius-c-morel/[31] Susan Smith McKinney Steward, M.D., '1870 (1847-1918)[32] Sarah J. Smith Tompkins Garnet (1831-1911) •[33] Brownstones and ballot boxes: The fight for women’s suffrage in Brooklyn | 6sqft[34] https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qfffg[35] Meals as Collective Memory: A Conversation on Food and Place — Weeksville Heritage Center[36] Weeksville, Brooklyn: The Remarkable Story of One of America's First Free Black Towns[37] The Culinary Legacy of Brooklyn's First Free Black Community[38] Black History Is Pratt History: Weeksville[39] Hunterfly Road Houses | [40] Weeksville Heritage Center[41] http://New York City Landmarks [42] Weeksville Heritage Center[43] Meals as Collective Memory — Weeksville Heritage Center[44] http://Brooklyn guide of Black-owned eats.”

I grew up in North Platte. There is a TON of railroad history in NP. Go to (or contact) the Lincoln County Historical Society and the Golden Spike Tower in NP and ask them what they have, what they know and who else to contact. Also contact the NP Public Library. My bet is you will find interesting information or be referred to others who can help you. Good Luck.