North Carolina Freedom Park

North Carolina Freedom Park in Raleigh, North Carolina is a park on Lane Street downtown between the Executive Mansion and the Legislative Building. Designed by Phil Freelon and the firm Perkins + Will, who helped design the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture,[1] It opened August 23, 2023.[2]

The park will include the North Carolina Victim Assistance Network’s Crime Victims’ Memorial Garden, which was already in the location.[1] The total project cost of $5 million was funded partly from a Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant of $1.9 million.[3]

History

The North Carolina Historical Commission approved the design October 30, 2019. Concrete walls based on the state's red clay will create walkways and will include quotes from famous Black people such as Maya Angelou, John Hope Franklin, Julius Chambers and Pauli Murray.[4]

The state bought the site in the 1960s and used half of it for parking, green space and a memorial to crime victims. Gavin Hogg, a lawyer from Scotland, bought 4 acres in 1831 for $400. On that site, which now includes the State Archives and Records Center, Thomas Devereux Hogg, who owned 18 slaves according to the 1850 census, built a house in 1850. It is not known whether the slaves lived on the site, but researchers in 2021 were attempting to determine whether they did and what happened to them after Emancipation. Researchers are also looking for evidence of the house that was on the site and possibly an earlier house.[3]

On October 7, 2020, a groundbreaking was held for the Beacon of Freedom,[1] a 50-foot-tall[5] orange metal art work to be lighted at night. At that time, $3.2 million had been raised, and the North Carolina General Assembly approved $1.5 million in funding on June 26, 2020.[1] The completed sculpture was delivered from Denver, Colorado in September 2022. Perkins + Will landscape architect Allen Pratt said pathways and low walls with inspirational quotations would serve as a "journey to the Beacon". The quotations are intended to inspire people to research the history behind them.[5]

References
  1. Vaughan, Dawn Baumgartner (October 7, 2020). "'A powerful symbol': Work underway on NC's first state monument to Black experience". News and Observer. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
  2. Vaughan, Dawn Baumgartner (August 23, 2023). "North Carolina Freedom Park opens in downtown Raleigh". News and Observer.
  3. Vaughn, Dawn Baumgartner (September 27, 2021). "Future Freedom Park site searched for clues to state's past". News and Observer. p. 1A.
  4. Johnson, Anna (October 31, 2019). "After years of delay, park honoring - black North Carolinians to break ground". News and Observer. p. 3A.
  5. Vaughn, Dawn Baumgartner (October 4, 2022). "'Making a statement': What NC Freedom Park's Beacon will mean". News and Observer.

Official website

35.7835°N 78.6374°W / 35.7835; -78.6374

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