Gregorytown, one of the last urban freedmen communities to be formed in East Austin, was established in 1880 and believed to be named after an early resident, Reverend Daniel Gregory. The community was founded east of Robertson hill and the State Cemetery—it encompassed Chincapin Street (currently Rosewood Avenue), Rector and Comal streets, East 7th Street, and Chicon Street. Residents of Gregorytown worked clerical, service, farming and industrial jobs in the cotton mill industry surrounding the train hub along East 5th Street. Families of the neighborhood attended Wesley Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church and decided to organize a safer alternative two-room Sunday school for their children. The Gregorytown Sunday school eventually became the Simpson Mission Methodist Episcopal Church, located at the corner of Concho and Gregory Street and continues to have an active congregation. By 1898 a school was founded at 1712 East 11th Street offering junior high, high school, and college preparatory classes to African American Studies. Within the bounds of Gregorytown is the site of Tillotson College which was founded in 1881 and later merged into Huston-Tillotson University at the same location in 1952.