The American Planning Association of Virginia selected the Gainsboro History Walk Interpretive Panels project for the 2015 Grassroots Planning Award during their annual conference held in Norfolk July 19-22. The project was the culmination of efforts undertaken by a grassroots committee comprised of neighborhood representatives and staff from Hill Studios who worked for over two years to design a way to permanently tell the Gainsboro neighborhood’s story and its contribution not only to the City of Roanoke, but also to the country.
Funds received from a Neighborhood Development Grant, an Arts and Culture mini-grant, and personally donated by members of the Gainsboro SW Community Organization, Inc., complemented by in-kind design assistance from Hill Studios and in-kind installation services by the city’s Public Works Department, resulted in eight interpretive history panels being created and mounted on walls within the Wells Avenue Plaza located directly across the street from Hotel Roanoke’s Wells Avenue entrance.
The panels tell the story in text and photos of one of Roanoke’s earliest neighborhoods, the Town of Gainsborough chartered in 1835, and the settlement and evolution of Northeast and Northwest Roanoke. In addition these panels also speak to the contributions made by African Americans from the community who significantly influenced social life, business development, and who advanced civil rights-locally, regionally, and nationally-highlighting African-American role models of the past for citizens today, thereby promoting cultural understanding for future generations to come.
The Grassroots Planning Award is one of five offered by the American Planning Association of Virginia each year that recognizes, honors, and showcases the great work taking place in Virginia that originates from citizen planners.
For more information, contact Bob Clement, Neighborhood Services Coordinator for the City of Roanoke, at 853-5210, or Evie Sloan, Director of Community Planning at Hill Studio, at 540-342-5263.
