Washington Park is a
neighborhood
A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...
located in central
Roanoke,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
, that initially developed in the 1920s as an early Roanoke
suburb
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...
. It borders the neighborhoods of
Roundhill on the north and
Williamson Road on the north and east,
Gainsboro and
Harrison on the south, and
Melrose-Rugby on the west.
Its northern and eastern boundary is concurrent with
Interstate 581, and its southern boundary is concurrent with
U.S. Route 460 (Orange Avenue). As of the 2000 census, Harrison had a population of 1,254 residents, with 531 households.
History
Taking its name from the park that lies at the corner of Orange Avenue and Burrell Street, Washington Park developed between 1920 and 1960.
The area where the park is now located was a
landfill
A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...
in the 1950s, but was subsequently capped, with the park being established by the early 1960s.
The area is also the location of the Lincoln Terrace
public housing
Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...
project, dating from 1952, which has since been refurbished and renamed the Villages at Lincoln.
The Roanoke city landfill was placed in the middle of this black neighborhood. The trash dump became a scene of confrontation between the white city government and the black residents. "At one point in 1963, the Rev. R. R. Wilkinson, then president of the city's
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...
, talked of organizing a 'baby carriage brigade' of young mothers with carriages to block the entrance to the dump and prevent trash trucks from entering." To avoid confrontation, the city closed the landfill.
"Washington Park."
''The Roanoke Times
''The Roanoke Times'' is the primary newspaper in Southwestern Virginia and is based in Roanoke, Virginia, United States. It is published by Lee Enterprises. In addition to its headquarters in Roanoke, it maintains a bureau in Christiansburg, ...
''. February 17, 2017. Page 8, "Opinion".
References
External links
Harrison & Washington Park Neighborhood Plan
Washington Park Alliance for Neighborhoods
Neighborhoods in Roanoke, Virginia
{{RoanokeCityVA-geo-stub