Keeping alive the legacy of the Fifth Avenue and Pleasant Street neighborhoods in northwest Gainesville is at the heart of a heritage trail that has been in the works since 2009.
The Historic Heritage Trail will create a physical system of signage and markers in the Fifth Avenue and Pleasant Street neighborhoods to recognize the achievements of people, past and present, in the fields of business, medicine, arts, education and spirituality. The project will gather, verify and prioritize existing historical research; identify historic and significant sites and create an overall Interpretive Plan that will form the basis of the trail system, according to the Gainesville Community Reinvestment Area’s website.
The significance of completing the project is rooted in the fact that it will let future generations of residents of the neighborhoods know the history of the real estate they occupy, said Aaron Green, a lifelong resident of the Fifth Avenue neighborhood who served a term as mayor of Gainesville in the mid-1970s.
Black-owned businesses such as Red’s Two Spot, Mom’s Kitchen, Sarah’s Place, Lincoln Theatre, Walter’s Barbecue Pit, Wabash Hall, Fletcher’s Pool Room that later became Kitty’s and many other businesses lined the streets of the Fifth Avenue and Pleasant Street neighborhoods, as well as residences and other businesses owned by a diverse group of Blacks who took pride in and loved their community, Green said.
“It is important we highlight and keep alive the legacy of the places, individuals and events in this community that have existed for more than 150 years,” Green said. “This community was predominantly Black in those days with homeowners and some renters who lived on the edge of the (University of Florida’s) student ghetto.”
Black and white businesses flourished in the community during the days of yesteryear, Green said, adding that the area is rapidly changing as gentrification roars through the neighborhoods that are roughly bound by Northwest 13th Street to the west, North Main Street to the east, Northwest Eighth Avenue to the north and West University Avenue to the south.
With the “massive gentrification” occurring in the neighborhoods, Green said he is compelled to make sure that his children, grandchildren and four great-grandchildren know the legacy of where their family comes from.
It is also important his family preserve its legacy by maintaining the land they own that will lead to generational wealth and their family history living on in perpetuity, Green said.
Key partners working to complete the project include the A. Quinn Jones Museum and Cultural Center, community stakeholders, Wild Spaces and Public Places, the city of Gainesville’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs department, the city’s Public Works department and Gainesville Regional Utilities, according to the Gainesville CRA website.
A recent community workshop was held to discuss the project and give an update to what the city describes as “legacy families” who are involved in the process of developing the trail. The city will be hosting another such workshop in the near future.
