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blackkudos · 5 years ago

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Allen Allensworth

Allen Allensworth (7 April 1842 – 14 September 1914), born into slavery in Kentucky, escaped during the American Civil War and became a Union soldier; later he became a Baptist minister and educator, and was appointed as a chaplain in the United States Army. He was the first African American to reach the rank of lieutenant colonel. He planted numerous churches, and in 1908 founded Allensworth, California, the only town in the state to be founded, financed and governed by African Americans.

During the American Civil War, he escaped by joining the 44th Illinois Volunteers and later served two years in the navy. After being ordained as a minister, he worked as a teacher, studied theology and led several churches. In 1880 and 1884, he served as the only black delegate from Kentucky in the Republican National Conventions. In 1886, he gained an appointment as a military chaplain to a unit of Buffalo Soldiers in the West and served in the US Army for 20 years, retiring in 1906.

In addition to his work in developing churches, he was notable for founding the township of Allensworth, California in 1908; it was intended as an all-black community. Although environmental conditions inhibited its success as a farming community and the residents abandoned it after a few generations, much of the former town has been preserved as the Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park. It marks the founders' dream and the thriving community that developed for some time.

Biography

Early life and education

Born into slavery in Louisville, Kentucky in 1842, Allensworth was the youngest of thirteen children of Phyllis (c. 1782 - 1878) and Levi Allensworth. Over the years, their family was scattered: his sister Lila escaped with her intended husband to Canada by the Underground Railroad; and the older boys William, George, Frank, Levi and Major were sold downriver to plantations in the Deep South, which continued to buy enslaved workers from the Upper South to develop the cotton industry. Mary Jane was his only sibling who grew up in Kentucky and married there; she purchased her freedom in 1849, gaining stability.

His mother was held by A.P. and Bett Starbird. The mistress assigned Allen as a young slave to her son Thomas. When the Starbird boy started school, Allen began to learn from him, although it was illegal. After his father died when Allen was young, his mother chose to be sold as a cook to a neighbor, the attorney Nat Wolfe. When the Starbirds found Allen was learning to read, they separated him from their son and placed him with another family, the Talbots. Mrs. Talbot, a Quaker, was kind to Allen and continued to teach him to read and write; she also took him to a Sunday school for slave children. When Bett Starbird discovered this, she took Allen back. In 1854 she made arrangements with her husband's partner John Smith to send the boy to his brother Pat's plantation down the Mississippi River in Henderson, Kentucky, to put an end to his learning. On the steamboat, the boy was placed in the care of a slave steward rather than being chained with other slaves below deck. They were being transported for sale to downriver markets.

Hebe Smith, Allen's new mistress, assigned him to be a houseboy; she prohibited him from continuing his studies, and whipped him for trying to do so. Also working in the household was a white orphan boy Eddie; the two boys became friends and helped each other. Suffering on the farm from a cruel overseer, in 1855 at age 13, Allen planned to escape to Canada. He spent two weeks hiding at a neighboring farm before returning to the Smiths for punishment. Later he ran away again. The Smiths and Starbirds agreed to sell him on the auction block in Henderson.

Allensworth was sold again in Memphis, Tennessee and shipped to New Orleans. There he was bought by Fred Scruggs, who taught him to work as an exercise boy and jockey in Jefferson, Louisiana. Unlike others, his new master was pleased to learn that the boy could read; he assigned him to race his best horse.

Civil War and freedom

In early 1861 the Civil War loomed, but horse racing continued. Scruggs took Allen and his horses upriver for the fall meet in Louisville. Allensworth hoped to see his mother Phyllis again, as he had learned that her last master, a Rev. Bayliss, had freed her after she cared for his dying wife. He found that she had recently gone to New Orleans with a Union man to look for her sons. (She found Major in prison.) Waiting for her return, Allensworth was reunited with his sister Mary Jane, who had married and had a son. She had purchased her freedom in 1849. When Phyllis Starbird returned to Louisville, she and Allen were reunited.

While working nearby on a farm where Scruggs' deputy had placed him, Allensworth met soldiers from the 44th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, a Union unit encamped near Louisville. When he told them of wanting freedom, they invited him to join the Hospital Corps. In disguise, he marched with the unit past his old master through Louisville and off to war. After serving as a civilian nursing aide for some time, he was invited to accompany Dr. A. J. Gordon, one of the surgeons, to his home in Georgetown, Ohio. There Allensworth dined with Gordon's family, was given a room of his own, and felt he first walked as a free man. With the war continuing, in 1863 Allensworth enlisted in the US Navy, where he earned his first pay as a free man. He was soon promoted to Captain's steward and clerk, and served on the gunboats Queen City and Tawah for two years.

Postwar years

Allensworth first returned to Kentucky to work and study. In 1868 he joined his brother William in St. Louis, where they operated two restaurants. Within a short time, they received a favorable offer and sold them out; Allensworth returned to Louisville. He worked while putting himself through the Ely Normal School, one of several new schools in the South established by the American Missionary Association. During Reconstruction, Allensworth taught at schools for freedmen and their children operated by the Freedmen's Bureau. Inspired by his own teaching, he began attending courses at the Nashville Institute, later known as the Roger Williams University, but did not graduate. The school later gave him an honorary Master of Arts.

Allensworth became involved with the Baptist Church in Louisville and attended the Fifth Street Baptist Church led by Henry Adams. He was ordained in 1871 by the Baptists as a preacher. In the 1870s, Allensworth went to Tennessee to study theology. During this time he also served as a preacher in Franklin, Tennessee, south of Nashville.

In 1875, Allensworth started working as a teacher in Georgetown, Kentucky. He also served as the financial agent of the General Association of the Colored Baptists in Kentucky. They had joined together to support the founding of a religious school for black teachers and preachers. Allensworth was among the founders of The State University, helped guarantee the salary of the president in the early years, and served on the Board of Trustees.

He returned to Louisville when called to be pastor of the Harney Street Baptist Church, which he reorganized, attracting many new members. They renamed it Centennial Baptist Church; it was selected as a model by the American Baptist Home Mission Society of America. Within a few years, Allensworth had increased the congregation nearly fivefold, and it built a new church.

Marriage and family

In 1877 he married Josephine Leavell (1855–1938), also born in Kentucky; they had met while studying at Roger Williams University in Nashville, Tennessee. She was an accomplished pianist, organist and music teacher. They had two daughters together, Eva and Nella.

The year of his marriage, Allensworth invited his mother to live with him and Josephine. They had several months together before she died in 1878 at the age of 96.

Post-Reconstruction era

Allensworth was called to the State Street Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky. He also gave public lectures. That fall, he went to Boston to give a series of lectures, after studying public speaking in Philadelphia.

On his return, he met people from the American Baptist Publication Society in Philadelphia, who appointed him as Sunday School Missionary for the state of Kentucky. He had always worked to build up the Sunday Schools at his churches, and this gave him the chance to continue to work on education around the state. The Colored Baptist State Sunday School Convention of Kentucky appointed him to the position of State Sunday School Superintendent.

With his leadership positions and public speaking, Allensworth became increasingly interested in politics. In 1880 and 1884, he was selected as Kentucky's only black delegate to the Republican National Conventions.

Military career as chaplain

In 1886, when he was 44, Allensworth gained support by both southern and northern politicians for appointment as a chaplain in the US Army; his appointment was confirmed by the Senate, as necessary at the time, and approved by the president. He was one of the few black chaplains in the US Army and was assigned to the 24th Infantry Regiment, known as the Buffalo Soldiers. His family accompanied him on assignments in the West, ranging from Fort Bayard, New Mexico Territory to Fort Supply, Indian Territory, and Fort Harrison, near Helena, Montana. His wife played organ in the fort chapels.

At Fort Bayard, Allensworth wrote Outline of Course of Study, and the Rules Governing Post Schools of Ft. Bayard, N.M.. The Army adapted these for use as the standard manual on the education of enlisted personnel.

By the time of his retirement in 1906, Allensworth had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, the first African American to gain that rank.

Allensworth, California

After the army, Allensworth and his family settled in Los Angeles. He was inspired by the idea of establishing a self-sufficient, all-black California community where African Americans could live free of the racial discrimination that pervaded post-Reconstruction America. His dream was to build a community where black people might live and create "sentiment favorable to intellectual and industrial liberty."

In 1908, he founded Allensworth in Tulare county, about thirty miles north of Bakersfield, in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley. The black settlers of Allensworth built homes, laid out streets, and put up public buildings. They established a church, and organized an orchestra, a glee club, and a brass band.

The Allensworth colony became a member of the county school district and the regional library system and a voting precinct. Residents elected the first African-American Justice of the Peace in post-Mexican California. In 1914, the California Eagle reported that the Allensworth community consisted of 900 acres (360 ha) of deeded land worth more than US$112,500.

Allensworth soon developed as a town, not just a colony. Among the social and educational organizations that flourished during its golden age were the Campfire Girls, the Owl Club, the Girls' Glee Club, and the Children's Savings Association, for the town's younger residents, while adults participated in the Sewing Circle, the Whist Club, the Debating Society, and the Theater Club. Col. Allensworth was an admirer of the African-American educator Booker T. Washington, who was the founding president and longtime leader of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Allensworth dreamed that his new community could be self-sufficient and become known as the "Tuskegee of the West".

The Girls' Glee Club was modeled after the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University, who had toured internationally. They were the community's pride and joy. All the streets in the town were named after notable African Americans and/or white abolitionists, such as Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist and author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

The dry and dusty soil made farming difficult. The drinking water became contaminated by arsenic as the water level fell.

The year 1914 also brought a number of setbacks to the town. First, much of the town's economic base was lost when the Santa Fe Railroad moved its rail stop from Allensworth to Alpaugh. In September, during a trip to Monrovia, California, Colonel Allensworth was crossing the street when he was struck and killed by a motorcycle. The town refuses to die. The downtown area is now preserved as Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park where thousands of visitors come from all over California to take part in the special events held at the park during the year. The area outside the state park is also still inhabited.

Allensworth is the only California community to be founded, financed and governed by African Americans. The founders were dedicated to improving the economic and social status of African Americans. Uncontrollable circumstances, including a drop in the area's water table, resulted in the town's decline.

Legacy and honors

The state has preserved the site and is gradually restoring its buildings. The most important building is the school house, which the community prized as representing the future of its children. In use until 1972, it is furnished as it would have been on a school day in 1915. The park arranges special events to celebrate the former community's history, and the park's visitor center features a film about the site. An annual re-dedication ceremony reaffirms the vision of the original pioneers.

Col. Allensworth's residence is preserved and furnished in the 1912-period style. It contains items from his life in the military service and the ministry. A small display of farm equipment is a reminder of the Allensworth economic base.

A public monument, designed by Ron Husband, has been funded by the City of Monrovia, California.

Death

Allen Allensworth died at the age of 72, on September 14, 1914. He was killed by a motorcyclist in Monrovia, California.

#04/07 #09/14

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newstfionline · 4 years ago

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Headlines

Protests, police and the use of force (NYT) Demonstrations continued across the United States on Sunday amid growing concern that aggressive law enforcement tactics intended to impose order were instead inflaming tensions. Videos showed police officers in recent nights using batons, tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets on protesters, bystanders and journalists, often without warning or seemingly unprovoked. The footage, which has been shared widely online, highlighted the very complaints over police behavior that have drawn protests in at least 75 cities across the United States. In Salt Lake City, officers in riot gear shoved a man with a cane to the ground. In Brooklyn, two police S.U.V.s plowed into a crowd of protesters. In Atlanta, police officers enforcing a curfew stopped two college students in a car, fired Tasers on them and dragged them out of the vehicle. And in Minneapolis, where there have been six consecutive nights of protests and clashes, a video appeared to show officers yelling at people on their porches to get inside and then firing paint canisters at them. “Light them up,” one officer said.

Deadly police raid fuels call to end ‘no knock’ warrants (AP) It’s the stuff of nightmares: Breonna Taylor and her boyfriend were in bed when a trio of armed men smashed through the front door. Gunfire erupted, killing the 26-year-old black woman. The three men turned out to be plainclothes police detectives, one of whom was wounded in the chaos and violence that March night. Taylor’s death led to protests and a review of how Louisville police use “no knock” search warrants, which allow officers to enter a home without announcing their presence, often in drug cases to prevent suspects from getting rid of a stash. Taylor’s name is one of those being chanted during nationwide protests decrying police killings of black people.

SpaceX capsule docks at ISS carrying US astronauts (WSJ) Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Sunday successfully docked a company-owned capsule carrying a pair of NASA astronauts with the International Space Station, capping a weekend of notable accomplishments that opened a new chapter in commercial space endeavors. Nineteen hours after a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Saturday from Florida on a historic voyage featuring the first-ever private spacecraft to attain orbit with people on board, astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken made more history. They monitored the stately, automated rendezvous of their Crew Dragon capsule with the orbiting international laboratory 250 miles above earth, linking up at 10:16 a.m. ET to mark a new industry-government partnership aimed at revitalizing U.S. space ambitions.

Ambassadorships to the highest bidder (Foreign Policy) The United States is quite unique among major democracies in its custom of giving coveted ambassadorships to the highest bidder. Although it’s a bipartisan practice, the Trump administration has set a new record in the proportion of ambassadorial roles going to donors over career diplomats. Roughly 44 percent of Trump administration ambassadors have come from political appointments, versus the historical average of 30 percent, according to the American Foreign Service Association. Under U.S. law, career diplomats must outnumber political appointees in ambassadorial roles. That balance is under threat, with 57 percent of ambassador nominations this year going to political appointees.

The pandemic is making people reconsider city living, trading traffic for chickens (Washington Post) For 49 years, Jinky Demarest de Rivera has lived and thrived in dense, vibrant cities. The nonprofit finance director grew up in Manhattan and for the past 16 years has made a home in Oakland, where they live with their wife, Sara Demarest de Rivera, and dog, Onyx. Now the family is packing everything up for a large house in New York’s rural Hudson River Valley with enough room for chickens. Two months of sheltering in place in their rented two-bedroom apartment gave the pair some unexpected clarity about what was important to them. And new policies letting them work remotely indefinitely at their respective jobs gave them an opportunity to do something about it. They wanted to be closer to their aging parents on the East Coast, and saw no hope of ever owning in one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country. They aren’t the only ones making a big move. After months of forced stillness, unable to make many major decisions or follow through on some already planned, people are jumping into one of the biggest life changes there is and moving out of cities. For some, it’s a chance to be closer to family, which feels more urgent in the midst of a global health scare. For a large swath of people in the country’s most expensive cities, it’s a way to get more living space and be closer to nature, something increasingly made possible by the growing trend of remote work. And for many others it’s not really a decision at all, but a necessity in the face of growing job losses and still sky-high rents.

US declares a vaccine war on the world (Asia Times) “The United States and the UK were the only two holdouts in the World Health Assembly from the declaration that vaccines and medicines for Covid-19 should be available as public goods, and not under exclusive patent rights. The United States explicitly dissociated itself from the call for a patent pool, talking instead of ‘the critical role that intellectual property plays”—in other words, patents for vaccines and medicines.

Tropical storm kills 17 in El Salvador and Guatemala (AP) Rains from Tropical Storm Amanda left at least 17 dead and seven missing while causing extensive damage across El Salvador and Guatemala that pushed thousands of people into shelters amid the coronavirus pandemic. EL Salvador Interior Minister Mario Durán said Monday some 7,000 people were scattered across 154 shelters. He said a quarter of the rain that the country normally receives in a year fell in 70 hours. That set off landslides and flooding, especially in the western part of the country. Amanda pounded El Salvador with rain for days before moving ashore as a tropical storm on Sunday and pushing across Guatemala.

Nicaragua Becomes a Place of Midnight Burials (NYT) Just hours after Yamil Acevedo died in a hospital, funeral home workers in hazardous materials suits strapped his coffin to the back of a pickup truck, drove it to a cemetery and buried him in the dark of night. Across Nicaragua, families are being forced to hold these “express burials,” rushed funerals at all hours of the night, without time to call a priest or to buy flowers. The services are happening so fast, and in such a haphazard fashion, that relatives worry terrible mistakes are being made. “The doctor said, ‘If you can bury him as soon as possible, do it,’” said Amani Acevedo, Mr. Acevedo’s daughter. “I don’t know that the person in that coffin was even him.” The signs are everywhere that the coronavirus is raging across Nicaragua. But the Nicaraguan government insists it has the virus firmly under control, with the lowest Covid-19 death toll in Central America.

Grand Bazaar, cafes open and flights resume as Turkey eases up (Reuters) Flights and car travel resumed between Turkey’s big cities on Monday while cafes, restaurants and Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar reopened in the country’s biggest step to ease restrictions taken to contain the coronavirus pandemic. Traffic levels jumped in the commercial hub of Istanbul, with many Turks returning to work as the government sought to revive an economy hit hard by the pandemic. Employees of government offices and public facilities joined the many factory workers who restarted last month.

China and India Brawl at 14,000 Feet Along the Border (NYT) High in the Himalayas, an enormous fistfight erupted in early May between the soldiers of China and India. Brawls at 14,000 feet along their inhospitable and disputed frontier are not terribly unusual, but what happened next was. A few days later, Chinese troops confronted Indian soldiers again, this time at several other remote border points in the Himalayas, some more than 1,000 miles apart. Since then both armies have rushed in thousands of reinforcements. Indian analysts say that China has beefed up its forces with dump trucks, excavators, troop carriers, artillery and armored vehicles and that China is now occupying Indian territory. No shots have been fired, as the de facto border code dictates, but the soldiers have fought fiercely with rocks, wooden clubs and their hands in a handful of clashes. In one melee at the glacial lake Pangong Tso, several Indian troops were hurt badly enough that they had to be evacuated by helicopter, and Indian analysts said Chinese troops were injured as well. Nobody thinks China and India are about to go to war. But the escalating buildup has turned into their most serious confrontation since 2017 and may be a sign of more trouble to come as the world’s two most populous countries increasingly bump up against each other in one of the bleakest and most remote borderlands on earth.

In China, U.S. protests a hot topic on state, social media (Reuters) Chinese state media is giving extensive coverage to violent protests roiling cities across the United States, while the unrest has also featured widely in Chinese social media. CCTV featured reports from one of its reporters running with protesters in Minnesota, as well as short videos shot by Americans depicting police violence against protesters. On China’s social media platform Weibo, at least five news items on the protests were among the top 20 trending topics by midday, led by reports Trump had been temporarily taken to a bunker as protesters surrounded the White House. “The number one thing they want to show is that the Communist Party is doing a better job in terms of fighting the coronavirus and managing society,” said Alfred Wu, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. “That’s the main message: the U.S. is not doing good.”

Gantz apologizes for the killing of Palestinian man (Foreign Policy) Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz has apologized after Israeli security forces shot and killed Iyad Halak, a Palestinian who was autistic, in Jerusalem’s Old City on Saturday. “We are really sorry about the incident in which Iyad Halak was shot to death and we share in the family’s grief,” Gantz said. Israeli police said they opened fire after they saw a suspect with a “suspicious object” who didn’t stop when ordered to. Police later confirmed that they found no weapon. Palestinian officials denounced the killing as a “war crime” and an “execution.” The killing led to demonstrations over the weekend in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, with some participants holding signs tying the killing to that of George Floyd in the United States.

#headlines #news

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sivarajc · 3 years ago

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What is a dwell rate?

It's the period of time that elapses after a user clicks on a search result and returns to the search engine results pages (SERPs). It's a measure of how long a person spends on a website, starting and finishing with the search engine results page (SERPs). For example, "dwell time" is a term that is distinct from other metrics like "time on page" and "bounce rate" (more on that below).

Let's say you're looking for Indian food in Louisville, KY. First organic (non-advertised) search results are clicked on. You take a peek at the restaurant's website, examine the menu, and decide to continue your search. After three minutes and ten seconds, you return to the SERPs.

#seotips #digital marketing #seo #digital marketing2022 #organic seo

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queencity21 · 3 years ago

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Nothing is better than a fall night on Ludlow Avenue, seeing the students and families stroll through the little shopping district. I browsed Torn Light Records. Heaven. I continued my tradition of seeing a Wes Anderson film at the Esquire Theatre. Magic.

Then I ordered take-out at Ambar, a great Indian restaurant, and walked around until it was ready. I love the area's stately apartment buildings. There was a restaurant on Telford I really liked - a bistro just around the corner from the Esquire, but it didn't make it. So depressing.

I nipped into Ludlow Garage for a quick one before I picked up my meal. A couple from Louisville chatted with me, they were there to see a Peabo Bryson concert.

So all in all, this was the closest thing to traveling in the Great Before. I did the things that have always made me happy: browsing for music, seeing a film, eating a great meal, meeting new people if even for a short time. Joy.

#clifton #ludlow avenue #cincinnati #esquire theatre #torn light records #ambar #ludlow garage

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tikkahouse · 3 years ago

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Is there a Restaurant serving the Best Indian Cuisine in Louisville, KY?

Tikka House A Fine Indian Restaurant in Louisville, KY serving the Best Indian Cuisine in Louisville, KY. We create some of the most exciting and delicious traditional Indian cuisines using fresh and authentic Indian spices. Our focus is on great service and fresh cuisine in a relaxed and comfortable space. Please contact us to make a reservation for a table or make your order online. Visit Us.

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denishamjones · 3 years ago

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Lake Taik-O’Khata —— ….. The lake levee was constructed in 1954 by building a 600-foot dam and spillway at a cost of $333.34. Several small streams fed by springs soon began to fill the lake, and one year later water flowed out of the spillway. Family members got together and discussed at length a name for their new lake and decided to call it Lake Tiak-O’Khata, which in the Choctaw Indian language means “Lake of the Pines.” Fishing was popular and soon a concession stand stood on the western shore of the lake. A white sand beach for swimming with piers and diving board platforms were added. In 1957, the first cabins were built and 1958 saw the first bunk house to accommodate youth groups; 80 people can now be housed bunk style. In 1960, a giant step was taken when a restaurant which seated 200 was built and soon after was enlarged to seat 500. In 1961, Sylvia White, daughter of Sylvester and Ruby, joined the company. In the early years, family members did not have salaries. Pay was three good meals a day. April 4, 1965 was a dark day for the Smyth family as a fire totally destroyed the restaurant. The fire started around 2 a.m., presumably from faulty wiring in the kitchen area. Although there was a large debt, the family, along with good bankers, got busy and in August of the same year the restaurant building was restored. Business once again flourished! In 1973, Bob Smyth, son of Sylvester & Ruby Smyth, and his wife Vera moved from New Orleans to join the business. Soon after their approval, the first of twenty motel rooms were built. Subsequent building projects gave the property a total of fifty-four motel rooms by 1979. Steve and Carmen White joined the business in 1981. Again building projects were initiated. Honeysuckle Hall, a large meeting/dining facility was added. This was followed by the addition of Pine Ridge Lodge, a meeting/dining hall accommodating 250, with an 80 bed youth camp adjoined. Once again, in 1990, a building program which produced Smyth Hall, added fourteen more motel rooms. Today, lakeside villas and a large recreational vehicle park also dot the landscape. —— For more please, visit https://ltok.com — #mississippi #laketiakokhata (at Louisville, Mississippi) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQdACHugtFQ/?utm_medium=tumblr

#mississippi #laketiakokhata

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spauldinginjurylawcumming · 4 years ago

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5 Things You May Not Know About the City of Atlanta

Bodily injury lawyer in Atlanta, GAWhether you call Atlanta home or you are visiting the city for the first time, there is always something new to see or do. Atlanta is known for its rich history, great sports, and award-winning restaurants, but there are also a few little-known facts that may surprise you. So, let’s explore this historic city... Spaulding Injury Law - Personal injury attorney - Cumming 327 Dahlonega St STE 1004, Cumming, GA 30040 (470) 695-9950 6V67 39 Cumming, Georgia https://www.spauldinginjurylaw.com/cumming Spaulding Injury Law - Top injury lawyers in CummingLearn more about Spaulding Injury Law in Cumming: Chiropractors In Cumming, Georgia - Spaulding Injury LawLearn much more regarding Spaulding Injury Lawwithin these websites:Do not measure thyself! 🍽 ❕ 📏 📜 🏀🏈⚾️ 👨‍👧 🌃 ⚖ 👀 ⬆️ #thefirst #personalinjury #richhistory

Whether you call Atlanta home or you are visiting the city for the first time, there is always something new to see or do. Atlanta is known for its rich history, great sports, and award-winning restaurants, but there are also a few little-known facts that may surprise you. So, let’s explore this historic city together.

Atlanta Was Not the First Capital of Georgia

Atlanta was the fifth city to become the capital of this beautiful state. In 1776, Savannah had the honor, but during the Revolutionary War, the British captured the city, so the capital was moved to Augusta. Unfortunately, many residents claimed Augusta was too far east to be the capital, so the capital was moved once again. In 1796,Louisville claimed the honor until 1807 when malaria made the area inhabitable. In 1807, Milledgeville became the capital, and it remained the capital until 1868. Milledgeville was prosperous and growing, but it was too overcrowded, so Atlanta was chosen as the next and final capital of Georgia.

There Are More Than 70 Streets in Atlanta That Have the Words Peachtree

Peachtree Street is one of Atlanta’s major streets that connect different parts of the city. Residents and visitors might use this street often, but may be surprised to learn that the name has nothing to do with Georgia peaches! The area we know as Atlanta was once inhabited by the Cherokee and the Creek Indians. One of their main villages was called Standing Pitch Tree. As southerners do, the name was shortened and soon became known as Peachtree. This name is so synonymous with the city that is has been used for more than 70 streets in Atlanta ever since.

9 Tiny Doors

Scattered around Atlanta, hidden in plain site are a collection of tiny doors. This was the brainchild of artist, Karen Anderson. The doors are 6-inches tall. So far, nine have been found. No one knows if there are more. The idea is to get people to use their natural curiosity to look down and notice the little doors. What the doors lead to and the mysteries they hold is anyone’s guess.

They Give You Free Money

What better way to attract more visitors to the city than giving away money? Surprisingly, the city of Atlanta has decided to give every person that visits the Federal Reserve Building a free bag of money to show their appreciation. However, like most deals that are too good to be true, there is a catch. We should mention that the money is shredded! But, it is an interesting souvenir and worth a trip the Federal Reserve Building if you are in the area.

There Once Was a 780-foot Ski Slope in Atlanta!

Atlanta is not typically known for snow, but in the 1970’s Vinings Ridge Ski Area attempted to transform the city into a skiing destination for wealthy tourists. At one time, people believed Atlanta was the perfect place to visit when you were looking for some winter fun in a warm, Southern climate. The all-inclusive ski resort offered a 3-story lodge, a rooftop restaurant, and a 780-foot ski slope made of AstroTurf and plastic pellets. Unfortunately, the ski resort was not a long-term success, but the concept remains one of the interesting facts about Atlanta that most people do not know about the city.

https://www.spauldinginjurylaw.com/blog/5-thing-probably-not-know-atlantaSpaulding Injury Law

#Spaulding Injury Law #Accident and injury attorney in Cumming #Auto injury lawyers near me in Cumming #Best accident attorney Cumming GA #Best accident attorney in Cumming #Car accident injury attorney Cumming GA #Car accident injury attorney in Cumming

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spauldinginjurylaw · 4 years ago

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Atlanta Was Not the First Capital of Georgia

There Are More Than 70 Streets in Atlanta That Have the Words Peachtree

9 Tiny Doors

They Give You Free Money

There Once Was a 780-foot Ski Slope in Atlanta!

By: Spaulding Injury Law Title: 5 Things You May Not Know About the City of Atlanta Sourced From: www.spauldinginjurylaw.com/blog/5-thing-probably-not-know-atlanta Published Date: Sat, 01 May 2021 08:31:27 +0000

#thefirst #alwayssomethingnew

Spaulding Injury Law - Lawyer close to me in Atlanta, GA

50 Hurt Plaza SE #1536, Atlanta, GA 30303 (770) 744-0890 QJ37+P7 Atlanta, Georgia

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journeydb · 4 years ago

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December 19 2019 Lafayette CO

For the last two weeks I’ve been decorating, buying, wrapping, and sending gifts, trying to fit Zumba, yoga, and meditation into my schedule, not to mention grocery shopping, making meals and caring for the house and cats, and attending holiday festivities. I have had some help from my friends Bev and her sister, Carol, and Shelley, which has been wonderful. Shelley decorated this alcove and stairway and did a marvelous job, better than I have done before. Today it was a relief to take a break and join my friends Camille, Vivian, Lu, Diane, and Robyn for the annual MAUUUI (Mothers Acting Up UU Inspired) covenant group holiday luncheon.

This group has been a source of much emotional and spiritual support for us all and we have become close friends over the years. The membership has changed from time to time and at the moment we are missing Kelye, who moved away last year, (and joined us today by Facetime) but this core group has been together for many years now.

For the last few years we have been having our luncheon at Busaba in Louisville, which is my favorite Thai restaurant in Boulder County, but it’s also always very crowded at this time of year so we decided to try the buffet at Taj II close to the Louisville/Lafayette city line. We shared stories, gifts, pretty good Indian food, and it was a delight to continue this tradition.

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laberintos-espinas · 4 years ago

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A Tourist Guide to Pensacola, Florida

Situated in northwest Florida, ten miles from the Alabama state line on its beg, Pensacola is wealthy in notable, military aeronautics, and characteristic sights, all with Florida's unique sun, sand, fish, and water perspectives Wedding Bands Pensacola:

Despite the fact that St. Augustine, on Florida's east or Atlantic coast, is viewed as the most seasoned US city and flourished after Admiral Pedro Menendez de Aviles cruised to it and set up a province, Pensacola, on the state's west or Gulf of Mexico side, might have guaranteed the title if its own settlement had endured.

Six years sooner, in August of 1559, Spanish wayfarer Tristan de Luna moored in a zone nearby clans named "Panzacola," for "long-haired individuals," with the aim of completing Luis de Velasco, the Mexican emissary of Spain's request for building up a settlement on the sound.

Very much provisioned and arranged, he was furnished with 11 ships and brought 1,500 would-be pilgrims, among whom were African slaves and Mexican Indians. Be that as it may, history had to take some unacceptable byway when a savage storm wrecked eight of de Luna's vessels on September 19.

By the by, with an end goal to rescue the endeavor, he sent one of them to Veracruz, Mexico, to inspire help, leaving the outsiders to squeeze out a presence on shore and make due by depleting the provisions they had brought. However, rather than re-provisioning the homesteaders, the boats, showing up a year later, just saved the survivors by taking them to Havana and leaving minimal in excess of a military station by the spring of 1561. By August, the modest bunch of warriors relinquished the new land site and got back to Mexico, esteeming it excessively perilous for settlement.

In spite of the fact that it was past information at that point, a specialty as the most seasoned, ceaseless US city it could always be unable to make.

It would be very nearly 150 years, in 1698, indeed, that unfamiliar powers would by and by try to increase a traction for this situation, Spain set up a more effective post in what might become cutting edge Pensacola and toward that end spread out a provincial town.

As has so regularly happened since the beginning, land, once guaranteed, turned into the prize others looked for, frequently by military methods, and Pensacola demonstrated no exemption. Spaniards at first gave up to the French in May of 1719, however it was not really the finish of its possession. France, Spain, Britain, and Spain indeed would take ownership throughout the following century, until the last at last surrendered Florida to the United States in 1821. Since the Confederacy additionally "took up residency," Pensacola is considered the "City of Five Flags."

A noteworthy bit of its right around 500-year history has been safeguarded and can be knowledgeable about the Pensacola Historic District, which is overseen by the UWF Historic Trust, itself an association upheld by the University of West Florida, and it comprises of 27 properties on the National Register of Historic Places.

Affirmation, just available for seven days, incorporates guided visits and guest section, and tickets can be gotten at Tivoli High House.

Significant structures are many. Seville Square, for instance, is the focal point of the old settlement and filled in as one finish of the British course's motorcade ground, finishing at its twin, Plaza Ferdinand VII. It was here that General Andrew Jackson acknowledged the West Florida domain from Spain in 1821 and first raised the US banner.

A little, protected segment of Fort George, an objective of the American Revolution's Battle of Pensacola, is emblematic of British occupation from 1763 to 1781.

Unique houses proliferate, including the Julee Panton Cottage, the 1805 Lavalle House, the 1871 Dorr House, and the 1890 Lear-Rocheblave House.

The Old Christ Church, situated on Seville Square and inherent 1824 by slave work, is the most seasoned of its sort in the state to at present possess its unique site.

There are likewise a few exhibition halls: the T.T. Wentworth, Jr., Florida State Museum, which was developed in 1908 and initially filled in as the City Hall, the Pensacola Children's Museum, the Voices of Pensacola Multicultural Center, and the Museum of Commerce.

Despite the fact that not actually part of the Pensacola Historic District, the Pensacola Grand Hotel is situated on the site of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad's traveler stop, which itself was developed in 1912 to supplant the first 1882 L&N Union Station that served Pensacola for a very long time. It is currently on the National Register of Historic Places.

Reestablished in its unique wonder and changed into a lodging with a 15-story glass tower, it holds quite a bit of its initial embellishment, including a French earth tile rooftop and a clay mosaic tile floor, and is decorated with period pieces, for example, a strong, drop-cast bronze light and classical goods.

Its lavish "1912, The Restaurant," situated on the ground floor, highlights gateway Biva entryways from London, a cast-bronze French-style light fixture from Philadelphia, 1885 angled glass from a Victorian lodging in Scranton, and scalloped-molded flame broil work from Lloyd's of London.

Maritime Air Station Pensacola:

There are a few huge attractions on Naval Air Station Pensacola, which can be gotten to by the guest's entryway and requires ID, for example, a permit, to enter

Found itself on the site of a Navy yard that was raised in 1825, it started as an avionics preparing station at the flare-up of World War I with nine officials, 23 mechanics, eight planes, and ten sea shore propped tents, and was viewed as the first of its sort.

Drastically growing due to the Second World War, it prepared 1,100 cadets for every month, who aggregately flew nearly 2,000,000 hours. After its Naval Air Basic Training Command moved its base camp from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Pensacola, unadulterated fly airplane were consolidated in the prospectus. Today, 12,000 dynamic military work force, 9,000 of whom get flying preparing, are doled out to the station.

The widely acclaimed National Naval Aviation Museum, likewise situated here, is the biggest and one of Florida's most-visited attractions. It started not as a vacationer sight, but rather as a methods for remembering maritime flying history for cadet educational plans, for which there was neither adequate time nor subsidizing for the customary book-and-study methodology.

The office, at first housed in a 8,500-square-foot wood outline constructing that hailed from World War II, turned into the locus of determination, assortment, conservation, and show of airplane and curios that speak to the turn of events and legacy of the administration branch. It opened its entryways on June 8, 1963.

Ever-growing, it presently has 700 planes in its assortment that are shown in its 11 other authority Navy galleries all through the nation, yet nearly 150 immaculately reestablished ones are as yet displayed here after another office with 37 outside sections of land and 350,000 square feet of indoor space was finished. Confirmation is free.

Partitioned into the South Wing, the West Wing, a second-floor Mezzanine, and the different Hangar Bay One, it follows the development of Navy flight and the airplane it worked from its beginning to the most recent Middle East clashes.

The A-1 Triad, for instance, was so named since, in such a case that worked in the three domains of air (wings), water (buoys), and land (wheels). The Nieuport 28, in the World War I segment, encouraged plane carrying warship experimentation, while the mammoth Navy-Curtiss NC-4, at the limit of the Golden Age display, was the first to navigate the Atlantic from Trepassey, Newfoundland, to the Azores Islands off of Portugal.

Speed from stream warriors during the Cold War is spoken to by such kinds as the McDonnell F2H-4 Banshee, the North American FJ-2 Fury, and the Russian MiG-15.

Highlight of the West Wing is the "USS Cabot" island and a copy of its transporter deck, which is encircled by a broad assortment of for the most part World War II airplane, including the Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat, the Vought-Sikorsky FG-1D Corsair, and the General Motors (Grumman) TBM Avenger.

Of the various shows on the exhibition hall's mezzanine, which itself disregards both the South and West Wings and can even be gotten to via aircraft ground steps, there can be none that offer a more prominent differentiation to one another than those gave to lighter-than-air avionics and space investigation.

Advanced from the round inflatable first effectively flown by the Montgolfier Brothers in 1783 in the main case, carriers were huge, controllable inflatables which achieved lift by the lightness standard themselves, yet fused motors for impetus and rudders and lifts for, individually, yaw (guiding) and longitudinal (pitch) hub control. Suspended gondolas housed the team and travelers. Inflexible sorts included inner systems, which were not needed by the non-unbending ones, for example, dirigibles.

Gondolas or control vehicles from the Navy's L-8 and World War II-period K-47 aircrafts are in plain view. The last mentioned, conveyed on May 19, 1943 at Moffett Field, California, had a 425,000-cubic-foot inner volume.

In the second, or space, case, a reproduction of the Mercury Freedom 7 space container, the first was dispatched at 116.5 nautical miles and was air/space borne for 14.8 minutes, speaks to Naval Aviation's commitments to the Space Program, on the grounds that Naval Aviator Alan B. Shepard turned into the primary American to enter that domain on May 5, 1961.

Likewise in plain view is the first Skylab II Command Module, which circled the Skylab space station during 28 days among May and June of 1973. Worked by a three-part, all-Navy team, it set a few precedents, including the longest monitored spaceflight, the best separation voyaged, and the best mass docked in space.

Noticeable from both the mezzanine and the fundamental floor is the 75-foot-tall, 10,000-square-foot Blue Angels Atrium that associates the South and West Wings and highlights four Douglas A-4 Skyhawks in a plunging precious stone painted in the aerobatic group's dim blue attire.

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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What the future of the American ballpark should look like

The American ballpark is in decline. Let’s build it back up.

The American stadium is in retreat.

Across sports, broad swaths of unoccupied seats have become a common sight. The reasons why can be debated — the cost of attendance is rising, fans are busier with other forms of entertainment, or many simply prefer watching from a bar or a couch than a stadium seat — but the sinking numbers at the gate can’t be denied. And teams seem to be out of ideas on how to make the stadium atmosphere more enticing.

When the Cleveland Indians opened Jacobs Field in 1994, it was packed to capacity on a daily basis, selling out 455 consecutive games from 1995 to 2001, even with an expansion to the stadium’s capacity in 1996 because of this overwhelming demand. By 2015, the club, despite a run that included multiple playoff appearances leading up to an American League pennant in 2016, removed thousands of oft-unsold seats for the installation of still-rarely-used “party decks.” This story isn’t unique to Cleveland. Multiple clubs have actively reduced seating, and where a capacity over 45,000 was once commonplace, new stadium proposals rarely top 30,000.

Nowhere is the gap between possibility and reality more clear than in baseball, the sport with the most room for innovation in design and capacity to fill, with 30 teams playing 81 home games a year. The sport’s non-standard field of play should mean more unique experiences for fans, yet few teams are daring enough to take advantage.

Meanwhile, the retro-nostalgic trend in baseball park design started by Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards in 1992 has grown stale. A familiar palette of materials and grab-bag of design touches has shown up in new ballparks everywhere, like brick and stone, quirky-for-quirk’s sake outfield angles, and historicist allusions to baseball’s supposed Golden Age. While a few stadiums — notably Miami’s Marlins Park, which we’ll get to later — have bucked convention, there’s little separating a Comerica Park from a Nationals Park, or a Great American Ballpark from a Citizens Bank Park.

Meanwhile, the way we consume sports is changing. Cities and teams continue to pour billions of dollars into stadium-building projects, but the final products aren’t keeping up with the times. Architects may talk a good game about what their designs will do for a team or community, but they’re not achieving their goals. Teams seem to have lost any sense of adventure. Instead, modern stadium design has reacted to falling attendance by getting smaller instead of getting better.

This is personal for me: I’m an architect myself, and my love of sports and stadiums is a big reason why. From the moment I started following baseball in earnest, right when Cleveland’ moved to that new ballpark and became one of the most exciting teams in baseball, I believed a great stadium design could make a great team. I’d fill notebooks with sketches of audacious designs I believed could change the game forever. (I could have saved baseball in Montreal, if only they’d listened to a teen from Ohio.) When I did a career-shadowing trip to an architecture firm as a high-school freshman and saw not-yet-public drawings for what would become Milwaukee’s Miller Park, I was hooked.

As of yet, no one has asked me to design a ballpark. But after seeing stadium after stadium be built around slight variations on the same model, I’m taking matters into my own hands. This is a design manifesto for how we can face the future, tear apart the old assumptions, and re-envision a stadium for a new world.

Don’t just talk about community buy-in; let the community buy in

In 2018, before exploring alternate plans such as a time-share with Montreal, the Tampa Bay Rays optimistically pitched a new park in Tampa’s Ybor City neighborhood. In describing the design, the Rays claimed the venue would be ��of, by and for the people of Tampa Bay.” Community engagement is a common refrain in presentations like this, and the Rays are far from the first team to suggest a closer relationship with the public. I don’t see anything in the Ybor stadium design to suggest it will create one, though. It’s a fairly standard design that is admittedly prettier than their moribund current home, Tropicana Field, but doesn’t address the fundamentals of fan support.

Fans want to feel that the club has bought into them, and a bolder model of fan engagement could give them a real stake in the club’s success. One of the most promising recent trends in North American sports is the way soccer clubs are emulating their European counterparts by developing dedicated supporters’ groups. These independent organizations drive enthusiasm and energy in the ballpark, and make sure seats stay filled.

Instead of just acknowledging and tolerating the supporter group model, we’re going to encourage and codify it in the park’s architecture by giving over control of entire sections of the ballpark to fans. Rather than design the seating sections and concourse as a finished product, we’ll offer it up as a framework for fan-driven organizations to introduce their own visions.

Prime sections of the ballpark will be designed only up to a minimum level of basic infrastructure, giving fans a shell for customization, just as a developer might prepare spaces in a new building awaiting tenants. Each supporters’ group will be given a frontage on the concourse and a frontage to the field, and relatively free rein to create their vision in between. Type and configuration of seating, manner of distribution of tickets, even operations of concessions would be delegated to these groups. Cushy seats or hard bleachers? Scrap both for standing rails? Favor a first-come-first-serve daily admissions, or a program that rewards perfect attendance with seating preference? It’s up to you, the fans.

Not only would this allow for a more diverse and authentic character of public-facing elements, it would make filling seats a matter of community pride. Your group won’t want to be the one that can’t bring a crowd on a Tuesday night, nor the one that can’t add something to the gameday atmosphere. The message would be clear: bring your vision to the ballpark, but bring your friends, too.

Throw open the gates

The relationship between teams and their surrounding urban environment — good or bad — has created some of the most memorable and familiar features in ballpark design. Fenway Park’s iconic 37-foot-high “Green Monster” wall in left field began in part as a spite fence to prevent freeloaders from watching games from nearby buildings. Wrigley Field’s rooftop viewing sections represent the (eventual, grudging) concession to that same kind of viewing. While those examples are more than a century old, the tension between teams and towns remains.

“Any time someone else puts something outside our front door, it’s going to have an adverse impact on our business,” explained Atlanta Braves president of development Mike Plant in 2016 while outlining the massive team-controlled development project accompanying the club’s move from downtown Atlanta to an undeveloped field in suburban Cobb County. This is a business strategy, but it’s not community engagement. It’s community imitation, creating a context to fit one’s own needs and walling off the city outside.

We’re going to take a different approach: we’re throwing open the gates, and offering the stadium up to the street. Instead of simply using design touches to emulate surrounding buildings, we’ll erase the distinction between stadium and surround, and put the backs of those supporters’ sections towards the street. We can’t have cars on a concourse, so a series of pedestrianized streets — like those that have been successfully implemented in urban developments like Las Vegas’s Fremont Street, Kansas City’s Power and Light District, or Louisville’s Fourth Street Live — can place the park smack-dab in the middle of a vibrant, multi-use entertainment district, developed with the same open-handed, community-led process as the park itself.

Will some people be able to catch a glimpse of the game without buying a seat? Sure. The club can make money back by leasing land to the businesses drawn in by that activity. And on slow game days, the district can support the ballpark by bringing in people who might decide to catch a couple innings over a beer after dinner at a nearby restaurant. When the ballpark is bursting at the seams for a playoff game? The crowd can flow through the entire district, expanding the ballpark’s capacity greatly.

For once, a new ballpark can be an organic part of the city, rather than just echo of it.

Consider all the angles

Baseball is not just an in-person product; it’s also a television product, and the design of a ballpark should take careful consideration of the game will be seen on screen. Tens of thousands might see a game from inside the stadium, but millions may see it from the narrow view of a handful of camera lenses.

When the New York Yankees opened their updated version of Yankee Stadium in 2009, their inaugural year attendance was perfectly healthy: more than 45,000 fans a game, filling 87 percent of the stadium’s capacity, second only to the Los Angeles Dodgers in total attendance. The only thing it seemed like anyone could talk about, though, were all the empty seats behind home plate. The stadium’s so-called “Legends Suite” seating selling plush seats with private club access to the city’s most well-heeled fans was, and is, a cash cow. Having rarely-filled captain’s chairs in the most visible location in the park, though, was a terrible public face for a franchise that was beginning to resemble an aloof luxury brand more than a baseball club with a passionate fanbase.

Even beyond that especially egregious example, the television viewer’s dominant perspective — that is, the center-field camera view of a stadium — can either make a stadium seem like an appealing destination or a sterile mausoleum. As a young viewer, I loved the sight of the hometown crowd visible over low brick wall behind home plate at Wrigley Field. Conversely, the high blank wall at Minneapolis’s Metrodome gave the impression no one was at the game. Surely teams benefit from filling their best seats with people willing to pay a premium, but that cash grab shortchanges the television audience, which sees a muted front or the same staid group of people again and again (looking at you, Marlins Man).

Programs like ESPN’s College GameDay, NBC’s Today, and countless televised political rallies know what stadium designers often seem to forget: Putting your strongest supporters where the cameras are, and making their fervor the first thing anyone sees, makes for better television. We’ll place a seat-free tier of grandstands directly behind home plate. Every game will have a lively crowd for the broadcast, refreshed daily via ticket lottery, rewarding a new crop of avid rooters with a once-in-a-lifetime view.

Un-level the playing field

In theory, if seldom in practice, one of the primary goals of a baseball team is to win games. Oddly, many new ballparks work directly against this goal. To many ownership groups and the design teams they employ, winning is clearly a secondary concern at best.

“It doesn’t hold noise or home-team fervor anywhere near the way the old place did,” Yankees relief pitcher Mariano Rivera said of the new Yankee Stadium in his autobiography, The Closer. “The old Stadium was our 10th man.” Cavernous new ballparks can’t contain or focus crowd noise, with fans spread far from the field and the best seats reserved for corporate interests.

The stadiums that have had notable home-field advantages in the past arose almost by happenstance. The deafening roar of Seattle’s Kingdome, on the rare occasions when it was full, was amplified by its ugly concrete dome, and the fact fans were virtually on top of the field in Detroit’s Tiger Stadium was a by-product of structural limitations of the era. The tricky outfield dimensions of Fenway Park or the short right-field porch at the original Yankee Stadium weren’t driven by an architect’s desire for novelties, but by the confines of the available sites.

An active approach to creating a home-field advantage has two primary elements: one, make it harder for your opponent to compete, and two, make it easier to build your team around the park’s dimensions. We’ll take two approaches to achieve this.

Many current and proposed stadiums have roofs. Whether fixed or retractable, a roof provides greater flexibility and year-round usability. But they’re rarely designed with acoustics in mind, and this is a missed opportunity. A stadium can’t make the crowd more raucous, but it can make it seem more raucous by capturing and channelling sound in a deliberate manner. Sculpting a roof structure that focuses sound right on the pitcher and hitter can amplify the crowd’s impact and make the game much harder for opposing players.

Meanwhile, a team can be built to an outfield — say, with a staff of fly-ball pitchers in a park with spacious dimensions, or a lineup of pull-hitters for a short corner porch. It’s not always easy to get the right roster for the park you have, though. Some teams try to tweak their dimensions yearly to address their personnel, but that leads to awkward gaps between fence and seats. The seams show, because tinkering was never considered in the original design.

In my park, it will be.

While the infield sides of the ballpark will be fixed, permanent structures, we can open the design to the outfield with a few permanent elements anchoring a space designed with flexibility in mind. Each year, the outfield can be rebuilt to suit the roster’s composition and the season’s needs, and show fans a fresh appearance that looks intentional rather than accidental.

Don’t just make a park, make a statement

A great ballpark isn’t just a place to play; it’s a destination. Countless people have made a lifetime goal out of seeing every one of baseball’s varied ballparks. But while many of the current parks are comfortable, perfectly pleasant places to enjoy a beer and a ballgame, fewer and fewer have truly indelible charm, an element you just have to see up close, like the ivy-covered walls at Wrigley Field, or the Green Monster in Boston. The restored Baltimore & Ohio Railroad warehouse behind right field at Camden Yards served this purpose as the retro ballpark craze started, but many ballparks have adopted pale imitations.

One park that tried something different was Miami’s Marlins Park, which was described during design by then-owner Jeffrey Loria as a place he wanted to be “different and experimental.” “I thought it was time for baseball to be innovative,” Loria said in an interview. The Miami Herald described Marlins Park glowingly as “a contemporary landmark of grand gestures.” It is beautiful, modern, unique — and mostly empty. It failed to meet the other points, most notably engagement with the fans and community. A fraught (and some might say corrupt) financing process and multiple fire-sale roster purges eroded fan buy-in, and a stadium alone can’t fix that. What Marlins Park did offer was sweeping views, clean modern lines, and one truly unique piece of local flair: a colorful animatronic home-run sculpture by artist Red Grooms that was promptly removed by new team owner Derek Jeter upon his purchase of the club in 2018.

Marlins Park may have failed to draw crowds so far, but it’s the closest a modern ballpark has come to defining a new era. We’re taking that one step further. Our defining feature has to be so present in the park’s design that no ex-shortstop owner, no matter how joyless, could remove it. The feature must be the design itself.

So far, we’ve developed our ballpark as if it is situated in the midst of a strong, functional, formal grid system. Now it’s time to rip that grid apart, bisecting it with a series of pedestrian pathways moving in flowing, organic patterns. These pathways will subdivide and re-link blocks, creating a variety of shapes, sizes and dynamic residual conditions. These pathways can flow from the streetscape concourse up to rooftop terraces and even higher, to structures that form the frame of the roof structure.

A place to walk can be an attraction in itself, like Barcelona’s Las Ramblas, Copenhagen’s Strøget, Paris’s Coulée verte René-Dumont, or New York City’s High Line. Offer people a compelling stroll, and they’ll come from far and wide to walk it. Dramatic views into a ballpark from above will be an enticement to stay and catch a ballgame, even if you’re someone who would otherwise have no interest in baseball.

Bring it all together

Rethinking a stadium isn’t just a matter of changing the field dimensions or facade materials. It’s a matter of breaking the stadium out of the box it’s been confined to for so long. In this conceptual design, we’re throwing open the gates and integrating the game-day experience into a whole neighborhood. We’re acknowledging the game isn’t just experienced in person, and that a well-crafted remote product can create fans who will come to the park in the future. We’re reminding ourselves that winning isn’t everything, but that it needs to be something. Finally, we’re weaving it together into a larger, grander experience, one that’ll bring visitors from far beyond the fanbase.

Would any baseball team take on this approach? Probably not. Teams tend to be risk-averse when it comes to how they build and fill their parks. The notion of opening up a stadium this dramatically flies in the face of a century of sports-profit thinking.

Architects, for their part, can only do what a client is willing to pay them to do, so it’s not surprising so many new stadiums amount to new clothes on the same beast. Designers shouldn’t be absolved, though. The way sports are consumed is always changing, and they can show teams how to build an environment that can evolve along with it.

A new way of doing things might only seem impossible until it’s done. Just as Camden Yards once did, one pioneering design can usher in a standard. If and when that happens, it’ll be a whole new ballpark for American sports.

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