Isaac Campbell Community Center and Park
Remembering the distinctive history of Joynerville
![Pavilion at The Isaac Campbell Senior Community Center](https://history.titusville.com/files/fullsize/c90c9d14bc21306250d06192a4f14695.jpg)
From its very beginning as a city, Titusville was home to a large and vibrant African American community. Opening independent businesses and working on the railroad and in the citrus groves, the community was long centered along South St.
There are few architectural remains of the thriving nineteenth-century African American neighborhood of Titusville known as Joynerville. From the Isaac Campbell Community Center, you can look over the area that was once filled with houses, businesses, places of entertainment, parks, and an ornamental pond. The layout of the streets was designed by J. Francis LeBaron, a civil and railroad engineer. This neighborhood extended southward from South Street between the Indian River and DeLeon Street on the west. Among the most prominent residents and businessmen of the Joynerville area was Andrew Jackson Gibson, a former slave who settled in Titusville in 1876. In 1880 he became Brevard County's first jailer and also worked as the supervisor of the only public road in the county. In 1886 Andrew and his brother Edward founded the Missionary Baptist Church. Today the church is known as The Greater Bethlehem Baptist Church and continues to play a central role in the religious life of Titusville's African American community.
Images
![Pavilion at The Isaac Campbell Senior Community Center](https://history.titusville.com/files/fullsize/c90c9d14bc21306250d06192a4f14695.jpg)
![Plat map of Joynerville, drafted by Francis LeBaron, 1879](https://history.titusville.com/files/fullsize/c0d3052c04110f8f16056571aee6d2c0.jpg)
![The area of the former community of Joynerville](https://history.titusville.com/files/fullsize/b5932efa7e60282d221ea293edfb632f.jpg)
![Andrew Jackson Gibson (1831-1928), businessman and civic leader, operated a barbershop a shoe repair shop soon after his arrival in the city in 1876. In 1880 he became Brevard County's first jailer, and fed prisoners meals that he and his wife prepared in their small home. He also worked as the supervisor of the only public road in Brevard County. He later initiated the formation of the Brevard County Poor Farm.](https://history.titusville.com/files/fullsize/2ddd790ea26777d068208b397b6e95ab.jpg)
![The last of the Gibson tenement houses, moved to another location in 2006](https://history.titusville.com/files/fullsize/7f022a8ab8ec66f76c406a299f7c3b72.jpg)
![Members of the Gibson Family outside the remaining tenement houses (2006)](https://history.titusville.com/files/fullsize/d47e33fd1c9a7684d68b36b8680e0bf0.jpg)
![License issued to Andrew Gibson to operate a restaurant (1883). This restaurant was located across the street from the Titus House. It was famous for fresh oysters and seafood, and served meals to both blacks and whites.](https://history.titusville.com/files/fullsize/feb874846fe8405c7226dfdb3c884f3a.jpg)