I. ACCORD Freedom Trail Site - 97 M L King Ave

Location of Lincolnville Public Library

97 Martin Luther King Avenue was built in the 1920s by Frederick E. Martin, a prominent Lincolnville businessman whose name is set in the tile inside the front door. It was a popular confectionery and sundries store under many owners, drawing some of its customers from three neighboring schools: Excelsior, St. Benedict, and the Presbyterian Parochial and Industrial School.

The back section of the building, along Dehaven Street, was added in the mid 1920s. It served first as a pool room, then as a barber shop. The Lincolnville Public Library, under the direction of Mrs. Dorcas B. Sanders, occupied the back section in the 1950s and 1960s.

It was here that Rev. Thomas Wright, pastor of St. Mary's Baptist Church and president of the St. Augustine NAACP, trained students from Florida Memorial College in nonviolent techniques before they began sitting-in at local lunch counters in the 1960s to protest racial discrimination.