More than 80 years after she gave the world “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” Harlem Renaissance icon Zora Neale Hurston’s home has officially been preserved. Nestled in a historically Black community known as Lincoln Park, the humble Fort Pierce, Florida, home was recently acquired by The Conservation Fund to ensure its protection… and a major part of Black history.
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The Conservation Fund (TCF), a U.S. nonprofit focused on economic development and environmental preservation, partnered with the Zora Neale Hurston Florida Education Foundation (ZNHFEF) to acquire the property in September 2024. This humble house — built and given rent-free by her friend, local doctor Dr. Clem C. Benton — was where she lived from 1957 until her death in 1960. Now, it’s being brought back to life as a visitor and education center becoming a key stop on the Dust Tracks Heritage Trail, honoring key sites from her time in the community.
Though she was celebrated during the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston spent her final years largely forgotten by the literary world. She wrote weekly columns for the Fort Pierce Chronicle — a job she was offered by local publisher C.E. Bolen — taught briefly at Lincoln Park Academy, and worked day jobs to make ends meet, all while working on her unfinished novel titled “The Life of Herod The Great.” Despite being recovered from a fire, the piece was still published January 2025, per NPR.
“I found Zora in Cocoa, where she was doing some writing for the Pittsburgh Courier, I think,” C.E. Bolen stated in a Fort Pierce Tribune article. “I said ‘Why don’t you come to Fort Pierce and work for me?’ and she did… She amazed me. You could learn a lot from talking to her… She carried a lot of good information with her to her grave,” his statement concluded.
And after years of her hard work, the preservation of her legacy is well deserved.
“Zora Neale Hurston’s final home deserves to be part of her enduring legacy,” said ZNHFEF President Marvin Hobson, per Amsterdam News. “A home is a place of safety and refuge. As a writer in a male-dominated industry who worked during Jim Crow America, it’s easy to imagine the peace and comfort that Zora would have sought at her Fort Pierce home. We’re honored to partner with The Conservation Fund to ensure this property honors one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.”
You may know Zora Neale Hurston for iconic works like the 1937 classic “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” which brought the Black Southern essence to life. But she wrote much more, including novels like “Jonah’s Gourd Vine,” folklore collections like “Mules and Men,” and her autobiography, “Dust Tracks on a Road.” Her ability to blend storytelling and anthropology made her work truly one of a kind.
Amid a political climate that seeks to bury Black history and its accomplishments, preserving Hurston’s final home feels like a radical act. She gave the world stories that refused to be silenced — and now, her home is being restored to offer the same kind of inspiration she carried with her all her life.
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