The Friends of Oberlin Village are sponsoring a barbecue fundraiser Saturday, May 28th from 5 to 8 pm. Your $10 a plate donation gets you food, live music, and fun and helps preserve and honor the historic Oberlin Village, a community established by freed slaves in what is now part of University park.
You can find the party behind the Interact Building at 1014 Oberlin road, right by the historic Oberlin Cemetery. Bring a chair or blanket. And don’t forget to buy a chance on a beautiful, hand-made quilt being raffled for the benefit of the Oberlin Village project.
Friday, Dec. 11, from 7-a.m. till noon, volunteers are needed to help carry branches and cut wood from the back of the cemetery to the front to be chipped. The City of Raleigh is supplying a dumpster, and maintenance teams from Oakwood Cemetery and Bland Landscaping will bring expertise and tools –including the wood chipper– to clear brush and debris.
The site has to be made as clear as possible for forensic scanning equipment. The Friends of Oberlin have been fund-raising for this project, which is intended to reveal previously unknown graves in the old African-American cemetery, and finally provide reliable data about the number of persons buried in the Reconstruction-era site.
Save that Date! The UPHA Holiday Party is December 7
Start the holiday season off at UPHA’s annual holiday celebration Dec. 7 at the Players Retreat. The fun starts at 6:30 pm, and the PR will furnish their yummy appetizers while they last. Drinks and meals are at the members’ expense. And yes, it’s a family event!
Bring some cash and take a chance on our annual Christmas charity raffle. You could be a winner.
Meet your neighbors. Lift a glass to our beautiful neighborhood.
The winner of UPHA’s street vs street competition to sign up the most households is… (drumroll)…Kilgore Avenue! Kilgore, popular with families because of its proximity to Isabella Cannon Park, had the greatest percentage of membership growth in a contest that ended October 31.
UPHA also got its very first memberships from Daisy and Parker streets during the competition. Welcome, y’all.
UPHA members from these streets will be invited to a celebration in their honor at Gonza Tacos Y Tequila later this month.
Thanks to all members who participated in the contest and either joined or recruited new members.
Halloweeners show off their costumes at UPHA Holiday Party.
Kitties, lady bugs, comic book characters, space travelers, and super heroes were among this year’s most popular themes at the annual UPHA Halloween Party, held at Isabella Cannon Park. Even pets wore costumes! The food and fun were a warm-up for the night’s trick-or-treating. Many contributions of food fed young appetites sharpened by games and free-form play on a beautiful, mild autumn afternoon. Mad Scientist of the Triangle conducted slime-making demonstrations that proved an immediate child-magnet.
Many business contributors joined in the spirit of fun. Marco’s donated pizzas and hot wings (quickly scarfed up) and Brickhouse, Jasmine Mediterranean Bistro, Groucho’s Deli and Freshberry all provided gift coupons for the drawing. Raleigh Little Theater contributed two tickets to its upcoming show, “A Year with Frog and Toad.” Dr. Anita Sawhney, mindful of the dental fallout from the sweet-filled holiday, distributed pediatric toothpaste. (Don’t forget to floss, kids!)
Halloween’s just one more reason why it’s great to live in University Park!
Draft of Cameron Village-Hillsborough St. Area Plan About to be Presented
UP’s Sallie Ricks (right) and Clodagh Bastian (standing, center) watch as Cameron Park resident George Chapman makes notes on the map during a table-top exercise.
A final draft of the Cameron Village and Hillsborough Street Small Area Plan is about to be presented to the community. It is set to be presented in two sessions; Wednesday, October 28 from 7 to 9 pm in the Talley Student Center at NCSU, and, for the early-risers, Thursday, October 29, 7:30-9 am at Pullen Arts Center. The morning and evening sessions are the same, and scheduled in order to make it possible for residents to attend either one or the other.
Each meeting will begin with a presentation of the draft plan, followed by an open forum in which participants can ask questions and comment on ideas included in the draft plan.
The two sessions are a follow-up to workshops held last spring. The Small Area Plan –also known as the “Re-visioning Project”– was launched on a cold and rainy night at St. Mary’s School a year ago. Residents, business owners, and representatives of community institutions met with city planners and contractors to begin a process which nears conclusion with the presentation of the draft plan. The community consultation phase has included round-table discussions between the public stakeholders, numerous meetings with the community advisory board, and consultations among city planners, citizens, and elected officials, and has addressed such issues as traffic, parking, zoning, pedestrian enhancements, and concerns such as parks, building height, density, and safety.
Oberlin Cemetery Cleanup Project Continues on Nov. 7
Clearing the historic Oberlin Cemetery in preparation for thermal imaging; an ongoing project.
The Friends of Oberlin Village invite the community to join them in the cleanup-project at the historic Oberlin Cemetery on Saturday, November 7 from 9 am till noon. The site is located at 1014 Oberlin Road, behind the Interact building. This cleanup day is the latest phase in an effort to prepare site for forensic equipment to determine how many persons are actually interred there, and where the graves lie. A recent cleanup revealed markers that had been long been hidden in the underbrush. The site is relatively large, and the work has to be done with care. Participants should come wearing long-sleeve shirts, closed-toe shoes, and work gloves. Volunteers are invited to bring tools such as wheelbarrows, small wagons, chain saws, weed trimmers, and pruners. This is a great opportunity for those who need to accumulate community service hours.
Established in 1873, Oberlin Cemetery serves as the final resting place for people who by law could not be buried anywhere else. It became an official Historic Landmark in 2013. The souls interred there include black doctors, lawyers, artisans, educators, ministers, and war veterans. There are believed to be over 600 graves, some still marked by ornate gravestones and monuments. Many of their descendants live in the Oberlin Village area, which is within University Park today. For more information about Oberlin Cemetery and the Friends of Oberlin Village, visit their website at www.friendsofoberlin.org.
Volunteers take a break after cleanup work at Oberlin Cemetery Sept. 19
Helpers needed, tarps too, for Oberlin Cemetery July 11
NCSU students help haul brush from the historic Oberlin Cemetery last spring.
The Friends of Oberlin are looking for volunteers Saturday, July 11 from 9 to 11 am to help clean out brush and debris from the cemetery. The reason: the grounds need to be as clear as possible for a forensic scan aimed at identifying gravesites.
Participants are advised to wear closed-toe shoes, gloves and long sleeves. (Yes, it’s July, and it will be hot). Also needed: tarps to move the debris out of the cemetery.
Cold water and snacks will be provided.
Community Consultation Key Element in Long-Term Plans for Cameron Village-Hillsborough St. “Revisioning”
UP’s Sallie Ricks (right) and Clodagh Bastian (standing, center) watch as Cameron Park resident George Chapman makes notes on the map during a table-top exercise.
Approximately 100 people from University Park, Cameron Park, NCSU and the Hillsborough St. districts shared ideas and debated solutions at a community planning workshop March 30 at the Talley Student Center on the NCSU campus. The workshop, or “charette,”was part of the Cameron Village-Hillsborough Street Small Area “revisioning” project. The purpose of the revisioning project is to review and update long-term plans for the Cameron Village-Hillsborough St. area. The current plan was developed in 1999.
Participants were divided into 12 groups gathered around tables with maps of the area. Guided by facilitators, the tables –with their mix of residents from the three neighborhoods , business owners, and students– reviewed and made recommendations regarding such issues as density, green space, parking, zoning, building height and configuration, sidewalks, and transportation.
The March 30 event was followed by another session on April 1 to review the results for the charette. The next phase is planned for June, when a preliminary draft report is expected to be presented. In the meantime, planners said they expect to launch further on-line questionnaires for more detailed feedback from the community. The revisioning project events are organized by the City of Raleigh planning department and conducted by an urban planning firm.
UPHA residents cleaned out attics and basements and donated literally thousands of pounds of household items May 28 to help many newly-housed families live in comfort and dignity.
An astonishing seven truckloads were donated in University Park and areas bordering UP. The charity “Green Chair” will make the furnishings, pillows, kitchen items, and linens available to folks transitioning out of homelessness.
May 28 was chosen for the “Green Chair” collection because it was Service Raleigh Day, and students from the NCSU School of Design lent their youth and energy to the process of lifting donations into the trucks.
University Park Homeowners Association 