Anne Arundel County, Blacks of the Chesapeake, The Conservation Fund, Chesapeake Conservancy, and Personal Donors Make Buy Potential
Annapolis, MD (February 15, 2024) – The Metropolis of Annapolis finalized the acquisition of the one-time residence of educator and former Coppin State College President Dr. Parlett Moore on Thursday, February 15, 2024. The Metropolis’s acquisition was made attainable by Metropolis funding in addition to funding from Anne Arundel County, The Conservation Fund, Blacks of the Chesapeake, Chesapeake Conservancy, Maryland Heritage Space Authority and a whole bunch of personal donors, together with Merrill Household Basis, France-Merrick Basis and the William L. and Victorine Q. Adams Basis, Inc.
The Moore property is adjoining to Elktonia-Carr’s Seaside Park, which the Metropolis of Annapolis bought in 2022. Collectively, the 2 properties will turn out to be the Elktonia-Carr’s Seaside Heritage Park, managed by the Metropolis of Annapolis Division of Recreation and Parks. The situation will even turn out to be the headquarters for Blacks of the Chesapeake, a nonprofit group that paperwork and celebrates the historical past of African People who labored (and proceed to work) within the maritime and seafood processing industries within the Chesapeake Bay area.
“Since we acquired Elktonia in 2022, the Metropolis and companions have been tirelessly elevating the funds to get the Moore property,” stated Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley. “Now each properties aren’t solely preserved from future growth, however shall be joined collectively to be a part of the Elktonia-Carr’s Heritage Park, a web site devoted to telling a extra full historical past of Annapolis.”
From left to proper: Blacks of the Chesapeake President & Founder Vince Leggett, Maryland State Director Invoice Crouch and Chesapeake Conservancy President & CEO Joel Dunn. Photograph by J.T. Dean/Chesapeake Conservancy
The Metropolis of Annapolis, The Conservation Fund, Blacks of the Chesapeake, Chesapeake Conservancy, and personal funders celebrated the property switch at an occasion that included elected officers and members of the Maryland Fee on African American Historical past and Tradition.
“As we speak represents one other historic milestone of accomplishment for the 20-year Odyssey to protect the final vestiges of African American land located immediately on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. The historic areas of the Carr’s, Sparrow’s, Elktonia Seashores, and now the Parlett Moore household cottage, signify the ‘Black Coast’ of the Bay,” stated Vince Leggett, Government Director of Blacks of the Chesapeake. “Working with Mayor Buckley, the Director of Recreation and Parks, and public/non-public companions, our imaginative and prescient is to open a state-of-the-art instructional, environmental, and cultural heritage middle designed to coach and inspire the following era of African American land conservation and heritage preservation champions.”
The 0.67-acre waterfront Moore property and present residential construction be part of the adjoining Elktonia-Carr’s Seaside property, a 5.17-acre parcel that’s important to Black historical past, tradition, and heritage in Annapolis.
Elktonia, Sparrow’s and Carr’s Seashores, positioned off Edgewood Highway in Annapolis, had been Chesapeake Bay locations the place Black households spent summer time days and musical nights from the Nineteen Thirties to the Nineteen Sixties. Through the period of Jim Crow segregation, Black People had been traditionally prohibited from visiting in style seashores alongside the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic seashore. In response, Black People created their very own areas the place they might congregate and recreate safely by the water.
“Buying this property throughout Black Historical past Month is essential for Anne Arundel County and Annapolis,” stated County Government Steuart Pittman. “Black leaders of at present will be capable to memorialize what for a lot of had been essentially the most joyous moments of a segregated period, when hundreds gathered at this sacred web site on the Chesapeake Bay to occasion to a few of the greatest music that our nation needed to provide.”
Carr’s Seaside hosted a few of the most well-known musical performers of the mid-Twentieth Century, together with Ella Fitzgerald, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Stevie Marvel, Sarah Vaughn, and Duke Ellington, in addition to quite a few native artists. Sunday night time live shows had been broadcast to radio audiences on WANN/1190 AM, with Annapolis DJ Hoppy Adams introducing the performers.
The tip of segregation, the growth of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, the privatization of the Chesapeake waterfront, and a bunch of different socioeconomic elements led to the decline of those Black-owned companies on the Western Shore. In 1971, Anne Arundel County condemned 35.5 acres of Sparrow’s Seaside to turn out to be the situation of the Annapolis Water Reclamation Facility. A lot of the remaining land was later offered to a personal developer to assemble a gated condominium growth.
Elktonia-Carr’s Heritage Park Photograph by Jody Couser/Chesapeake Conservancy
“This particular place connects us along with its nature and cultural historical past. The previous and way forward for Elktonia-Carr’s Seaside will gas the knowledge and compassion our group wants,” stated Chesapeake Conservancy President & CEO Joel Dunn. “Due to Mayor Buckley’s management, companions and beneficiant donors, present and future generations will be taught in regards to the Chesapeake’s Black historical past at this welcoming park on the shores of the Bay.”
Within the coming months, the Metropolis’s Division of Recreation and Parks will develop, by a group public enter course of, a grasp plan for each properties. The general plan will incorporate storytelling parts in regards to the historical past of the location, in addition to a coastal and shoreline restoration plan in partnership with the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Resilience Finance Authority. The brand new park shall be managed by the Annapolis Division of Recreation and Parks and be open to the general public.
Annapolis, MD (February 15, 2024) – The Metropolis of Annapolis finalized the acquisition of the one-time residence of educator and former Coppin State College President Dr. Parlett Moore on Thursday, February 15, 2024. The Metropolis’s acquisition was made attainable by Metropolis funding in addition to funding from Anne Arundel County, The Conservation Fund, Blacks of the Chesapeake, Chesapeake Conservancy, Maryland Heritage Space Authority and a whole bunch of personal donors, together with Merrill Household Basis, France-Merrick Basis and the William L. and Victorine Q. Adams Basis, Inc.
The Moore property is adjoining to Elktonia-Carr’s Seaside Park, which the Metropolis of Annapolis bought in 2022. Collectively, the 2 properties will turn out to be the Elktonia-Carr’s Seaside Heritage Park, managed by the Metropolis of Annapolis Division of Recreation and Parks. The situation will even turn out to be the headquarters for Blacks of the Chesapeake, a nonprofit group that paperwork and celebrates the historical past of African People who labored (and proceed to work) within the maritime and seafood processing industries within the Chesapeake Bay area.
“Since we acquired Elktonia in 2022, the Metropolis and companions have been tirelessly elevating the funds to get the Moore property,” stated Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley. “Now each properties aren’t solely preserved from future growth, however shall be joined collectively to be a part of the Elktonia-Carr’s Heritage Park, a web site devoted to telling a extra full historical past of Annapolis.”
From left to proper: Blacks of the Chesapeake President & Founder Vince Leggett, Maryland State Director Invoice Crouch and Chesapeake Conservancy President & CEO Joel Dunn. Photograph by J.T. Dean/Chesapeake Conservancy
The Metropolis of Annapolis, The Conservation Fund, Blacks of the Chesapeake, Chesapeake Conservancy, and personal funders celebrated the property switch at an occasion that included elected officers and members of the Maryland Fee on African American Historical past and Tradition.
“As we speak represents one other historic milestone of accomplishment for the 20-year Odyssey to protect the final vestiges of African American land located immediately on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. The historic areas of the Carr’s, Sparrow’s, Elktonia Seashores, and now the Parlett Moore household cottage, signify the ‘Black Coast’ of the Bay,” stated Vince Leggett, Government Director of Blacks of the Chesapeake. “Working with Mayor Buckley, the Director of Recreation and Parks, and public/non-public companions, our imaginative and prescient is to open a state-of-the-art instructional, environmental, and cultural heritage middle designed to coach and inspire the following era of African American land conservation and heritage preservation champions.”
The 0.67-acre waterfront Moore property and present residential construction be part of the adjoining Elktonia-Carr’s Seaside property, a 5.17-acre parcel that’s important to Black historical past, tradition, and heritage in Annapolis.
Elktonia, Sparrow’s and Carr’s Seashores, positioned off Edgewood Highway in Annapolis, had been Chesapeake Bay locations the place Black households spent summer time days and musical nights from the Nineteen Thirties to the Nineteen Sixties. Through the period of Jim Crow segregation, Black People had been traditionally prohibited from visiting in style seashores alongside the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic seashore. In response, Black People created their very own areas the place they might congregate and recreate safely by the water.
“Buying this property throughout Black Historical past Month is essential for Anne Arundel County and Annapolis,” stated County Government Steuart Pittman. “Black leaders of at present will be capable to memorialize what for a lot of had been essentially the most joyous moments of a segregated period, when hundreds gathered at this sacred web site on the Chesapeake Bay to occasion to a few of the greatest music that our nation needed to provide.”
Carr’s Seaside hosted a few of the most well-known musical performers of the mid-Twentieth Century, together with Ella Fitzgerald, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Stevie Marvel, Sarah Vaughn, and Duke Ellington, in addition to quite a few native artists. Sunday night time live shows had been broadcast to radio audiences on WANN/1190 AM, with Annapolis DJ Hoppy Adams introducing the performers.
The tip of segregation, the growth of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, the privatization of the Chesapeake waterfront, and a bunch of different socioeconomic elements led to the decline of those Black-owned companies on the Western Shore. In 1971, Anne Arundel County condemned 35.5 acres of Sparrow’s Seaside to turn out to be the situation of the Annapolis Water Reclamation Facility. A lot of the remaining land was later offered to a personal developer to assemble a gated condominium growth.
Elktonia-Carr’s Heritage Park Photograph by Jody Couser/Chesapeake Conservancy
“This particular place connects us along with its nature and cultural historical past. The previous and way forward for Elktonia-Carr’s Seaside will gas the knowledge and compassion our group wants,” stated Chesapeake Conservancy President & CEO Joel Dunn. “Due to Mayor Buckley’s management, companions and beneficiant donors, present and future generations will be taught in regards to the Chesapeake’s Black historical past at this welcoming park on the shores of the Bay.”
Within the coming months, the Metropolis’s Division of Recreation and Parks will develop, by a group public enter course of, a grasp plan for each properties. The general plan will incorporate storytelling parts in regards to the historical past of the location, in addition to a coastal and shoreline restoration plan in partnership with the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Resilience Finance Authority. The brand new park shall be managed by the Annapolis Division of Recreation and Parks and be open to the general public.
###