The City is celebrating the completion of the Smokey Hollow Commemoration. The historic African American community once filled about half of what is now Cascades Park.
Smokey Hollow was a working class neighborhood with rows of shotgun houses, businesses and schools. Former resident Cicero Hartsfield says it was a strong community, where families shared what they had.
“It was a community where the people were tight-knit, part of that was just a means of survival, considering segregation was still very strong in those times. Things where people shared food, help when somebody needed some assistance,” he said.
Fruit trees, gardens and open-air structures called "spirit houses" give new life to the lost community, which was displaced by urban renewal in the 1960s. Former residents guided the design and creation of the site.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-rmeiViJ1E
