Allensworth Historic District

A town its Black founders built, funded, and ran themselves

Allensworth occupies flat San Joaquin Valley land in Tulare County, California, west of State Highway 43 near Earlimart. The Allensworth Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 23 February 1972 (NRIS 72000263). State parks officials acquired land within the historic townsite in 1974, and the site became Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, where restored and reconstructed early twentieth-century buildings — including Allensworth School, First Baptist Church, Mary Dickinson Memorial Library, and the Allensworth house — mark the town plan.

Colonel Allen Allensworth was born enslaved in Louisville, Kentucky, on 7 April 1842. He escaped to Union service, later served as a U.S. Navy petty officer, earned a doctorate in theology, and in 1886 became chaplain of the 24th Infantry (Buffalo Soldiers). He retired in 1906 as a lieutenant colonel — the first African American to reach that rank. In retirement he lectured on Booker T. Washington’s philosophy of self-reliance. In Los Angeles he met educator William Payne. In 1908 he and other Black pioneers organized what became the California Colony and Home Promoting Association, which bought about 800 acres along the Santa Fe line at a stop called Solita. The colony of Allensworth incorporated in 1909, established and led by African Americans who supplied its own capital and elected its own town officers.

School, library, water, and decline

By 1910 residents had built a small school. In 1912 Allensworth became California’s first African American school district; in 1914 it became a judicial district. When growth required a larger school, Josephine Allensworth converted the former school into the Mary Dickinson Memorial Library, named for her mother. Water was the town’s structural problem. Residents formed the Allensworth Rural Water Company in 1913 but could not fund deeper wells; by 1914 the water table had fallen. On 15 September 1914 Colonel Allensworth was struck by a motorcycle in Monrovia and died. Drought, poor crops, a failing water system, and a postwar economic slump pushed residents away. Arsenic in the water later threatened the town with demolition; by 1973 Allensworth no longer appeared on many California maps.

Visiting the state historic park

Park address: 4011 Grant Drive, Earlimart, CA 93219; phone (661) 849-3433; email [email protected]. Official hours (confirm before travel): park roughly 9 a.m.–4 p.m.; visitor center daily 10 a.m.–4 p.m., closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Day-use vehicle entry is listed as free on the park page; special-event parking and camping fees apply. Guided tours require advance scheduling (at least 72 hours). Self-guided brochures and interpretive panels are available; historic buildings are generally viewed from outside through windows rather than entered. Cell-phone audio and state-park apps supplement the visit. Fifteen campsites operate year-round; hookup sites and a dump station exist — reserve through Reserve California when required.

Directions from the official page: from Highway 99 near Earlimart take the Avenue 56 / Alpaugh exit, west on County Road J22 (W Sierra Ave) about 7.4 miles to Highway 43, then south to Palmer Avenue and the park entrance over the railroad. Summers are routinely above 100°F; bring water, sun protection, and layered clothing. The park sits on ancestral Yokuts land (Wowol / Pa’ashi region); federally recognized tribes in the broader area include the Tachi Yokut Tribe and Tule River Indian Tribe.

Do not treat restored interiors as walk-in museums unless staff open them. Check parks.ca.gov for current hours, event parking fees, and construction related to the planned visitor-center and day-use project.