A significant piece of African American history in Charlotte has been restored and updated as a venue for a new generation in Uptown. On Tuesday, December 14, County Commissioners and several community partners joined to cut the ribbon on a new, enhanced Pearl Park.
Partners for Parks Board Members Al Brown and Alvin Woods joined the parks community celebrating the event.
“It was well-attended on this beautiful day in the park!” exclaimed Partners for Parks Treasurer Al Brown.
The 11-acre park has an incredible history tied to the former Brooklyn and Second Ward neighborhoods demolished during urban renewal in the late 1960’s. It sits on the first land purchased by the City of Charlotte in 1943 specifically for African American Charlotteans to use as a Victory Garden during World War II, according to local historian Tom Hanchett.
In its heyday, the park was home to practice fields for the Second Ward High School “Tigers” football team, the marching band, community festivals, and parades, in addition to being a neighborhood park for Brooklyn, Second Ward, and even nearby Cherry neighborhoods. After Brooklyn was demolished for urban renewal, and Second Ward high school was closed during desegregation, the park suffered one more blow when I-277 cut it off from the remaining communities it served.
The $4.75 million restoration project includes pickleball courts, a basketball court with Second Ward High School blue surfacing, a playground with fitness equipment, restrooms, a performance pavilion and event lawn, and a lighted multi-use field. They’re nestled into a restored flood plain and creek bank that connect to public parking and, via sidewalk along Pearl Park Way, to the Little Sugar Creek Greenway across the street.
Interpretive panels share the park’s history, while a public art piece, “Brooklyn Stories” by sculptor Cliff Garten, continues the narrative of Brooklyn and Second Ward through a two-column, laser-cut stainless steel and bronze backlit sculpture. The columns are inscribed with stories and quotes from Brooklyn neighbors, and aligned on the axis of the former Pearl Street that brought them to the park, and for which it is named.
The restored park is a community effort among a number of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County agencies, along with Second Ward High School Alumni Association, Charlotte Mecklenburg Black Heritage Committee, Historic Landmarks Commission, and historian Hanchett. Pappas Properties and the local Realtor Association, who tore down and rebuilt their Charlotte office tower as part of the park’s new configuration, were generous neighbors in the process as well.
The artwork is a collaboration between the Second Ward High School Alumni Association, Levine Museum of the New South, and the Arts & Science Council, along with Mecklenburg County.
Make sure to take a stroll over to the renovated park and look for new wildlife in the restored creek next time you’re walking the Greenway in Midtown!
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