Yesterday's Architect · 1732–1806
Cyrus Bustill
Born into slavery in Burlington, New Jersey, he bought his freedom through a baking trade, supplied bread to the Continental Army, ran a commercial bakery on Arch Street in Philadelphia, co-founded the Free African Society and opened a school for Black children in his home.
Read the Yesterday's Architects profileCyrus Bustill: The Baker Who Built Black PhiladelphiaMar 25, 2026 · Read →
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- Stephen Smith and William Whipper
Linked through David Bustill Bowser and Sarah Mapps Douglass
- Elizabeth A. Gloucester
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- Biddy Mason
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- Eliza Allen
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- Isaiah T. Montgomery
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- Jane Johnson Endsley
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- Jordan C. Jackson Jr.
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- Mont Howell
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- Sally Seymour
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People
- grandsonDavid Bustill BowserBEJ profile
- daughterGrace Bustill DouglassBEJ profile
- great-great-grandsonPaul RobesonBEJ profile
- granddaughterSarah Mapps DouglassBEJ profile
Institutions and enterprises
- co-founded · 1787Free African SocietyBEJ profile · cites Julie Winch, Philadelphia's Black Elite
- helped fund · 1792African Episcopal Church of St. Thomasamong the first to give personal fundsBEJ profile
- founded · 1803Bustill's school for Black childrenBEJ profile
Places
- born in · 1732Burlington, New JerseyBEJ profile
- worked in · 1780s–1797Philadelphiaran a commercial bakery on Arch StreetBEJ profile
- buried at · 1806Eden CemeteryBEJ profile
Themes
Only relationships stated in a BEJ profile or a cited record are shown, each with its source.