Zora Neale Hurston’s Legacy Lives On with Preservation of Her Last Home

Greater than 80 years after she gave the world “Their Eyes Have been Watching God,” Harlem Renaissance icon Zora Neale Hurston’s dwelling has formally been preserved. Nestled in a traditionally Black group often known as Lincoln Park, the standard Fort Pierce, Florida, dwelling was just lately acquired by The Conservation Fund to make sure its safety… and a significant a part of Black historical past.  

The Conservation Fund (TCF), a U.S. nonprofit centered on financial improvement and environmental preservation, partnered with the Zora Neale Hurston Florida Schooling Basis (ZNHFEF) to accumulate the property in September 2024. This humble home — constructed and given rent-free by her buddy, native physician Dr. Clem C. Benton — was the place she lived from 1957 till her loss of life in 1960. Now, it’s being introduced again to life as a customer and schooling middle turning into a key cease on the Mud Tracks Heritage Path, honoring key websites from her time in the neighborhood.

Although she was celebrated in the course of the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston spent her remaining years largely forgotten by the literary world. She wrote weekly columns for the Fort Pierce Chronicle — a job she was provided by native writer C.E. Bolen — taught briefly at Lincoln Park Academy, and labored day jobs to make ends meet, all whereas engaged on her unfinished novel titled “The Lifetime of Herod The Nice.” Regardless of being recovered from a fireplace, the piece was nonetheless revealed January 2025, per NPR. 

“I discovered Zora in Cocoa, the place she was doing a little writing for the Pittsburgh Courier, I believe,” C.E. Bolen acknowledged in a Fort Pierce Tribune article. “I stated ‘Why don’t you come to Fort Pierce and work for me?’ and he or she did… She amazed me. You may study quite a bit from speaking to her… She carried plenty of good data along with her to her grave,” his assertion concluded. 

And after years of her onerous work, the preservation of her legacy is effectively deserved. 

“Zora Neale Hurston’s remaining dwelling deserves to be a part of her enduring legacy,” stated ZNHFEF President Marvin Hobson, per Amsterdam Information. “A house is a spot of security and refuge. As a author in a male-dominated trade who labored throughout Jim Crow America, it’s simple to think about the peace and luxury that Zora would have sought at her Fort Pierce dwelling. We’re honored to companion with The Conservation Fund to make sure this property honors one of many best American writers of the twentieth century.” 

Chances are you’ll know Zora Neale Hurston for iconic works just like the 1937 traditional “Their Eyes Have been Watching God,” which introduced the Black Southern essence to life. However she wrote far more, together with novels like “Jonah’s Gourd Vine,” folklore collections like “Mules and Males,” and her autobiography, “Mud Tracks on a Highway.” Her potential to mix storytelling and anthropology made her work really one in every of a sort.

Amid a political local weather that seeks to bury Black historical past and its accomplishments, preserving Hurston’s remaining dwelling appears like a radical act. She gave the world tales that refused to be silenced — and now, her house is being restored to supply the identical sort of inspiration she carried along with her all her life.