We Met With The Middletown Developer of the Ropewalk Property!

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Written By John Mills

JR Carnegie-Hargreaves and John Mills

On Friday, February 3rd, Dr. Jesse Nasta and I met with JR Carnegie-Hargreaves, the developer at the prior location of the Middletown Connecticut Ropewalk where Prince Mortimer worked as an enslaved individual in the 1700's. JR gave us a tour of the property and talked to us about his plans!

John Mills and Dr. Jesse Nasta

The project will bring residential units and business space to Middletown, CT. It will cost close to $6 million to complete, which will include restoring the building’s exterior and making it more energy efficient. The project will also have 12,000 square feet of lower-level program and office space for “disadvantaged entrepreneurs.” The project is expected to be completed in early 2024.

JR is such a great guy...so willing to work with us! What was clear to me is that he is one who is into philanthropy. His project is based in attempting to support “disadvantaged entrepreneurs.” Also, a family foundation led by he and his wife, Faraneh Carnegie-Hargreaves, will occupy a portion of the facility. Their foundation is called Carhar Philanthropies and offers wellness and educational programming.

JR had lots of ideas on how to best honor Prince Mortimer within the development of the property! He was fully on-board! What a blessing!

More to come!!!

John Mills

Originally from San Diego, John Mills is a technologist by trade, but an equity advocate and independent scholar by passion. The descendant of both southern and northern enslaved, John focuses on unearthing little known people and stories of this country’s history in slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. John presents research through the lens and perspective of a descendant, with intent to inspire understanding and empathy, a means to inspire good, God fearing people, now armed with information, to look into whether they may be unwittingly aligning to biases resulting from the reverberating effects of a past time. John is a member of the Connecticut Freedom Trail and a member of the Webb Deane Stevens Museum Council. John is also working with an international team funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in an effort to deliver transformational impact on digital methods in cultural institutions...a means to decolonize museums. Finally, John is working with the state of Connecticut, business leaders and scholars in Middletown, CT to honor and memorialize a former enslaved individual by the name of Prince Mortimer.

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Funding for a Middletown, CT Memorial Honoring Prince Mortimer!