This is a service learning project for ReStorying Community at UNC Asheville.
Jan 25th, Edward Walton Pearson was born in Glen Alpine, NC. Parents Sindy and Edward Pearson.
Interested in mining moved out to Jellico, Tennessee where he enlisted in the Army. He was in the 9th Cavalry Buffalo Soldier, Fort Robinson Nebraska.
After being discharged from the Army, Pearson moved to Chicago, Illinois where studied law at the Chicago Correspondence School of Law. (date unknown)
After being discharged from the Army, Pearson moved to Chicago, Illinois where studied law at the Chicago Correspondence School of Law. August 6, Pearson opened a real estate office on 24 Eagle Street. He was an agent for R.P. Hayes (son of Rutherford B Hayes)
Old school lot is sold $400 (Community Center). New lot is purchased and a contractor assigned.
Pearson became a real estate agent for Park View in West Asheville. Founded in 1912 by civic leader E.W. Pearson as an African-American neighborhood, the Burton Street Community was one of the first parts of Asheville to be subdivided. Families grazed livestock and maintained farms in the neighborhood’s open areas.
Follow the link for larger image. http://nm.unca.edu:16080/pols499/MAP403_1912.jpg
Pearson founded “Buncombe County & District Colored Agricultural Fair” held at Pearson Park, Park View W. Asheville.
Pearson founded Asheville’s “Royal Giants”, the first semi-pro black baseball team in Asheville.
January 24th, Pearson married Annis E. Bradshaw
Royal Giants vs. Atlanta Oats Park - Southside Ave. A.M.E. Zion Church at left.
Colored Fair will be Held October 8th. Agricultural Fair to be held October 8, 9 and 10. Pearson again heads the seventh annual event. The county demonstrator will be at the fair to instruct attendants in the best methods of fair work.
To The Beloved and Scattered Millions of the Negro Race, Greeting. Follow the link for larger image. http://nm.unca.edu:16080/pols499/NegroImprovementLeague.jpg
The former Burton Street School building has consistently been a focal point in the neighborhood and now serves as the Community Center. The original building built in 1928 consisted of four classrooms, an auditorium, a lunchroom, a library and a principal’s office. The community participated in continued dedication to education. The high school graduation rate of parents within the neighborhood was sixty percent and the community had a one-year minimum college attendance rate of ten percent
Pearson founded the NAACP and served as the 1st president of the NAACP in Asheville. (date unknown)
Follow the link for larger image.
1st colored hospital in Asheville was founded
St. Paul’s Missionary Baptist Church helped send Pearson to Hot Springs, Arkansas to the Pythian Bathhouse to help him recover from illness. April 7th, 1946.
July 4th, 7:52 AM, E. W. Pearson dies from long-term illnesses.
Pearson’s funeral was conducted at Wilson’s Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church, located at 103 Burton Avenue. Pearson was buried in the African American cemetery, Violet Hill. (Violet Hill was established by James Vester Miller, who was a brick mason that built many African American churches, such as Hopkins Chapel AME, which Pearson attended on occasion.)
September 15th, 1947, the final Agricultural, held at Logan Show Grounds. Held at Logan showgrounds on caravan street.
Follow the link for larger image.
The Burton Street Community continued to thrive and exhibit aspects of rural life well into the 1950s. Children still found enjoyment playing in the woods and in the creek. The Elam family owned land from Buffalo Street to Smith Mill Creek, raised animals on the land and maintained a large garden. Trees covered the hillside between Smith Mill Creek and Patton Avenue, extending beyond present day developments along the northern boundary of Patton Avenue. Community stores in the neighborhood and along Haywood Road maintained running accounts with many residents. Several parks dotted the neighborhood, and children played at ball fields closest to their homes.
Date unknown. E.W. Pearson Jr. First black disc jockey, WLOS Radio.
Buffalo Street was paved.
Late 1950’s marked the first time the neighborhood would lose land due to road expansion.When Patton Avenue was widened in the late 1950s, the Elams lost their land, trees shielding the northern-boundary of the neighborhood were removed, and Smith Mill Creek was culverted in several areas.
1960's. I-240 was constructed. Construction of I-240 served as the second major encroachment into the neighborhood. It was the first major highway system to enter this residential region, and its creation displaced residents from many areas within West Asheville, particularly residents in the Burton Street Community. The Burton Street Community moved on to watch I-26 join the path of I-240 and would later learn of a project design to further widen the I-26 Corridor.
Repealed Article 23 of the city code which makes it unlawful to sell property to negroes in a predominantly white neighborhood. The article was, adopted in 1934, not enforced for a few years.
The city opens up the Burton Street Community Center, formerly known as the Burton street school and the Buffalo street school.
Late 1980’s, with many families left disturbed by the construction of I-240, community members began to disperse even more so than the direct result of the construction. With abandoned homes and turnover in residents, community cohesion withered away. What replaced it was an influx of drug usage and dealing.
The residents came together and met with police to find ways to combat the drug problem.
A community protest march with more than 200 residents of the Burton Street Community and other West Asheville neighborhoods was held. People marched with signs and banners along Burton Street, Boyd Avenue and Bryant Street where much of the drug activity was centered.
Late 1990's, NCDOT started planning an expansion of Interstate 26 through Asheville. NCDOT originally proposed three seperate ways of approaching the expansion, all of which were rejected by the Asheville community.
Annis Bradshaw Pearson died. Services held at Saint Paul Missionary Baptist Church. She was buried at Violet Hill Cemetery.
The Community Center developed new youth programs while trying to deconstruct the drug activity, but the conditions of the grounds continued to be less than desirable.$100,000 was allocated from the North Carolina Parks and Recreation Trust Fund and the Asheville Parks and Recreation Department’s city property tax increase allotment to perform basic renovations on the Community Center and replace playground equipment.
NCDOT announced two new alternatives, 4 and 5, that attempted to incorporate the design principles that a broadly representative Community Coordinating Committee stated they would like to see in any new proposals.
The Burton Street Community Peace Gardens were founded in 2003 by husband and wife pair DeWayne Barton & Safi Mahaba at a time when the community was confronting drug trafficking, crime and the I-26 Connector expansion.
Believing that NCDOT’s alternatives still did not fully meet the agreed upon design principles, local design and planning professionals founded ADC and developed a conceptual design for what became known as Alternative 4B. Endorsed by the Asheville City Council and local community organizations, Alternative 4B took the least number of houses and business of all the alternatives, had the fewest environmental impacts and had the smallest footprint. The Burton Street community banded together, and a partnership began between ADC and the neighborhood residents to advocate for Alternative 4B.
Beginning of the West Riverside Operation Weed & Seed that covers the area from the French Broad River to Louisiana Avenue and from Patton Ave. to Amboy Road. Its mission has been to improve quality of life by ‘weeding’ out crime and ‘seeding’ positive community change through resident leadership and creation of sustainable partnerships. The program has four components – Law enforcement, Community Policing, Prevention/Intervention/Treatment, and Neighborhood Restoration. The program along with the community has established partnerships with the Asheville Police Department, LEAF in Schools and Streets, ARP Phoenix, Asheville Green Opportunities, OnTrack Financial, Community Garden experts, and many more. They’ve built programs to provide leadership experiences to area youth and parenting groups to area families. They’ve repainted homes, cleared trashed lots, built signs, and landscaped. Since establishing the Weed and Seed program: - Drug calls for service have decreased 48%. - Violent crime has decreased 1% and - Weapons offenses have decreased 28%. - 41 individuals have been charged as habitual felons, getting them off the street forever - 2666 rocks of crack cocaine and 9762 dosage units of ecstasy (street value of $236,500) have been seized - $42,116 seized during arrests - installed speed humps - Trained Head Start staff to handle violent incidents - Created homework clubs that improved End Of Grade testing scores
NCDOT conducted five informal neighborhood meetings for the Burton Street neighborhood, the Bingham Road area, the West End neighborhood, the Hillcrest neighborhood and the Westwood Place neighborhood to have additional opportunity to review and comment on the proposed project alternatives.
in a 3-2 vote, the Buncombe County Commissioners voted to endorse Alternative 3, which had the largest impact on Burton Street, taking some 25 homes.
The annual fairs were first held at Pearson's Park in West Asheville's Burton Street neighborhood. Later fairs were held at McCormick Field and Oates Park.
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