136 and 138 12th Street

These two shotguns were built c. 1907 and are now being renovated. Ben and Lela Baker lived in #136 in the 1940s and 50s. Ben was a fishing guide at Bay City Lodge and Lela did domestic work; both were faithful members of Friendship Baptist Church. Ben tended a large garden (potatoes, corn, collards, sugar cane) on the south side of his house and always had a hog or two in a pen in the yard.