Warnersville Community
NEXT MEETING:
Join us for a Community Conversation about
Warnersville’s relationship to the Downtown Greenway
Saturday, August 18 9:00am – 12:00noon
at Shiloh Baptist Church in the Fellowship Hall
1210 South Eugene Street
Adults & children of all ages welcome!
Come to the third Warnersville greenway workshop and help us answer these questions:
1. Where are the significant places that celebrate the history and vision of the Warnersville community?
2. How will the Warnersville neighborhood contribute to the life of the greenway?
3. How will the greenway contribute to the life of the Warnersville neighborhood?
Questions? Call Dabney Sanders at 379-0821 or Thelma Walker at 508-8215. Or check out the website: www.downtowngreenway.org and click on the Warnersville link.
Warnersville future in midst of greenway discussed
by Jeanna Covington
Carolina Peacemaker
Originally posted 8/3/2007
The anticipated future for the Warnersville neighborhood was the center of discussion among residents, Tuesday night at Shiloh Baptist Church fellowship hall. This was the second in a series of three meetings organized by Action Greensboro in an attempt to provide community members the opportunity to come to an agreement concerning the downtown greenway project and what it represents to their neighborhood.
The initial discussion was held Saturday, July 21 and focused on Warnersville as it is today, its history and concerns. This was the first organized dialogue with any community concerning this project. The final meeting scheduled for Saturday, August 18 from 9 a.m. to noon will address how the proposed greenway can coincide with the community vision. Following the final meeting in August, Cooper Carry, developers of the venture, will begin to focus on incorporating neighborhood proposals into the overall greenway design.
The greenway is a 4.2-mile walking, running, and biking trail that will loop around the central business district and connect to Greensboro’s existing parks and trails system. It is a fraction of the Greensboro Urban Area Bicycle, Pedestrian and Greenway Master Plan (BiPed Plan) adopted by Greensboro City Council in November 2006, and by the Greensboro Bicentennial Commission as their commemorative project.
Phase one of the development—projected to begin by May 2008 as part of the bicentennial celebration—is in the southwest corner of the loop that stretches through the Warnersville neighborhood. Anticipated is an 1,800-feet segment constructed on Greensboro College owned property extending from the ramp at Freeman Mill Road to Eugene Street. The construction of this segment will be partly funded by a “Fit Community” grant of $60,000 from the N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund.
Piedmont Community Design Forum, a group of architects dedicated to aiding discussions between neighborhoods and developers, facilitated the Tuesday night exchange. Dabney Sanders, Consultant for Special Projects of Action Greensboro, told the more than 30 concerned citizens present, Warnersville community was chosen as the first phase because of it’s rich history; proximity to present and future connecting trails and other greenway sections; land is owned by a single property owner – Greensboro College; land is undeveloped, making the trails easier to create; and the location is a main entrance into the city.
Participants expressed a desire to preserve the African American history of the neighborhood including the establishment of the community, the churches, schools, and residents who made a difference in the city, such as Ezell Blair Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan)—one of the four N.C. A&T State University students who in 1960 staged a sit-in at the lunch counter of the old F.W. Woolworth’s on Elm Street.
“This community was built with a lot of pride…with a lot of dignity,” said resident Thelma Walker.
James T. Griffin, a landowner in Warnersville who bought back land his grandfather previously owned, suggested a marker be placed at the onset of the greenway highlighting the community’s legacy.
The future of the community envisioned by the citizens included affordable housing; a vibrant local economy; positive interracial interaction; improved traffic and street lights; modernization of local businesses; residents who are decision makers, from the beginning, on projects effecting the community; pampering services; designated locations for children; and an effective tutorial program.
Dr. Johnny B. Hodge Jr., a former resident of Warnersville and a retired professor from N.C. A&T State University, has compiled, together with his wife, a history of the neighborhood. For Hodge, and the other participants, what shouldn’t be included in the area in the future is a sports complex. Residents fear that the former J.C. Price School—the last building from the old community—would be demolished by Greensboro College for a proposed athletic space.
