VA -- Alexandria -- African American Heritage Park:
- Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.
- Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon
underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.
- Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.
- Accessing as Spider: The system has identified your IP as being a spider.
IP Address: 18.224.33.107 -- Domain: Amazon Technologies
I love well-behaved spiders! They are, in fact, how most people find my site. Unfortunately, my network has a limited bandwidth and pictures take up bandwidth. Spiders ask for lots and lots of pages and chew up lots and lots of bandwidth which slows things down considerably for regular folk. To counter this, you'll see all the text on the page but the images are being suppressed. Also, some system options like merges are being blocked for you.
Note: Permission is NOT granted for spiders, robots, etc to use the site for AI-generation purposes. I'm sure you're thrilled by your ability to make revenue from my work but there's nothing in that for my human users or for me.
If you are in fact human, please email me at guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can check if your designation was made in error. Given your number of hits, that's unlikely but what the hell.
- Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]
|
[1] AAHP_101223_001.JPG
|
[2] AAHP_101223_007.JPG
|
[3]
 AAHP_101223_013.JPG
|
[4]
AAHP_101223_018.JPG
|
[5]
AAHP_101223_022.JPG
|
[6] AAHP_101223_027.JPG
|
[7] AAHP_101223_031.JPG
|
[8] AAHP_101223_038.JPG
|
[9] AAHP_101223_039.JPG
|
[10] AAHP_101223_046.JPG
|
[11] AAHP_101223_050.JPG
|
[12]
AAHP_101223_054.JPG
|
[13] AAHP_101223_058.JPG
|
[14] AAHP_101223_062.JPG
|
[15] AAHP_101223_067.JPG
|
[16] AAHP_101223_072.JPG
|
[17] AAHP_101223_076.JPG
|
[18] AAHP_101223_079.JPG
|
[19] AAHP_101223_087.JPG
|
[20]
AAHP_101223_091.JPG
|
[21] AAHP_101223_094.JPG
|
[22] AAHP_101223_098.JPG
|
[23] AAHP_101223_102.JPG
|
[24]
AAHP_101223_105.JPG
|
[25] AAHP_101223_108.JPG
|
[26] AAHP_101223_112.JPG
|
[27] AAHP_101223_115.JPG
|
[28] AAHP_101223_118.JPG
|
[29] AAHP_101223_125.JPG
|
[30] AAHP_101223_139.JPG
|
[31] AAHP_101223_143.JPG
|
[32] AAHP_101223_147.JPG
|
[33] AAHP_101223_151.JPG
|
- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- AAHP_101223_013.JPG: From the establishment of Alexandria in 1749 to the present time, African Americans have been a vibrant part of the City's history. The City of Alexandria would not exist in its present form were it not for the economic, social, and cultural contributions of African Americans both enslaved and free. As Alexandria developed in the 19th century, African Americans began to form small neighborhoods with distinctive names and characteristics. Many of these areas such as the Berg, The Bottoms, Cross Canal, Hayti, The Hump, Sunnyside, and Uptown survive today and retain historical significance for African Americans currently living in Alexandria. From these original African American neighborhoods a sense of community developed, which led to the creation of churches, schools, civic and social organizations. The memorial sculptures in this park highlight people and institutions important to Alexandria's African American heritage.
The land for this memorial is of special significance. In 1885 this parcel of land was purchased by the Black Baptist Cemetery Association and a number of grave sites remain here. Hoof's Run, which runs through this site provided access to the Potomac River and the town of Alexandria for a variety of traders and retailers. By the middle of the 19th century, railroads provided a new transportation system. Established about 1851, the first railroad in this vicinity was the Orange and Alexandria which passed through this land on its way from the town center to more western parts of Virginia.
The Norfolk Southern Corporation has set aside this land as a memorial to recognize, celebrate and commemorate African American contributions to the Alexandria community. The Alexandria African American Heritage Park, a gift to the City from the Norfolk Southern Corporation, will contribute to the rich cultural heritage of Alexandria. The history and accomplishments of African American leaders will stimulate young people to develop esteem, hope, determination and pride in themselves. The memorial park coexists with the original landscape of the cemetery and preserves the interesting and varied plant life on this site. The design created an atmosphere suitable for nature walks or meditation.
- AAHP_101223_018.JPG: Truths that rise from the roots -- Remembered
We bury more than our bodies at rest
Deep within the forgiving soul
We bury as well our struggles and triumphs
Our dreams, our legends, our revelry, our toil
Here is where we enshrine our wisdom
To be joined with that of your yesteryears
And here is where our tomorrows are planted
As lessons learned against future tears
The artistic works incorporated into this Memorial Park offer symbolic testament to the efforts and accomplishments of a great many local individuals, institutions and organizations, both past and present. The names and images etched upon these forms, as acknowledgement of but some of those who have "passed this way before," represent the foundation, the builders, the source and substance of this historic and vibrant community. As a context in which history and art are joined, this public-art serves as a cultural marker -- a communal space to which the sons and daughters of the here and now celebrate and honor the heroes of their past.
Jerome B Meadows
Artist
Zoe Briscoe -- Research, Technical Assistant.
Park Designs -- EDAW
- AAHP_101223_022.JPG: Odd Fellows, 1869
Magnus Temple - 3, 1869
Lincoln Lodge - 11, 1875
Universal Lodge - 1, 1895
Aaron McKinney
Rev. Samuel M. Johnson
- AAHP_101223_054.JPG: Black Baptist Cemetery Association, 1885
- AAHP_101223_091.JPG: In Memory of
Sarah Hunter
who
departed this life
Dec. 24, 1896
Aged 32 years
...
- AAHP_101223_105.JPG: Virginia Bluebells
Mertensia Virginica
Habitat:
Moist Woods
Specially
Floodplains
- Description of Subject Matter: African American Heritage Park
The Alexandria African American Heritage Park, located off Duke Street on Holland Lane is a nine acre memorial park. Eight acres of the park surround a preserved one acre 19th century African American cemetery. Of 21 burials on this site, six identified headstones remain and are in their original location. The park was designed to co-exist with the original landscape of the cemetery and preserves the interesting and varied plant life on this site. The park, designed by nationally recognized landscape architectural firm EDAW, also sustains a wetland area that provides a home for mallards, painted turtles, beavers and crayfish in their natural habitat.
On June 17, 1995 the Norfolk Southern Corporation presented the park to the City of Alexandria. The park is part of a mixed-use Carlyle Development and a satellite site for the Alexandria Black History Museum. The memorial sculptures in the park are the creation of Washington, D.C. sculptor Jerome Meadows. The focal point of the park is a sculpture group of bronze trees called "Truths That Rise From the Roots Remembered." This formation acknowledges the contributions of African Americans to the growth of Alexandria. Other smaller sculptures throughout the park commemorate historic African American Neighborhoods and the people known and unknown buried on this site. A book stand in the park contains a visitors guide which identifies the names of African American citizens and sites etched on the sculptures.
The above is from http://oha.alexandriava.gov/bhrc/bh-heritage-park.html
- Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.)
I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com
and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
- Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
- Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].
