NASHVILLE, Tenn. -
Plans to reconnect historic Jefferson Street with its heritage are finally becoming a reality.
The Gateway to Heritage project stretches from 21st to 28th avenues in north Nashville and will include many aesthetic improvements such as columns, murals, colored gravel and lush landscaping.
Supporters, including Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and former Titans' running back Eddie George, broke ground on the project more than two years ago.
Ginger Hausser with Tennessee State University's Center for Service Learning, her colleagues, and multiple federal, state and local agencies helped put the project together to improve the Jefferson Street corridor and celebrate the area's rich history.
"I think many folks who have been in Nashville 40 years or more are aware of the importance of three historically black colleges and universities here in Nashville and the importance of this area in athletics and civil rights," she said. "For newcomers, I think there is probably not as much awareness of how rich the history is in north Nashville."
As part of the project, the Jefferson Street underpass at Interstate 40 will become a visually pleasing plaza.
"What is now dirt and trash and rocks and sort of an undesirable place to walk around will become a colorful, historical reverent space that recognizes north Nashville's history and African American's history," Hausser continued.
Some agencies have already started their portion of the project.
Work on the plaza will start in the coming weeks and finish up by the end of summer.
Hausser says Gateway to Heritage is all about remembrance and renovation, and many hope it will be the beginning of resurgence in north Nashville.
"In the future, it's our hope with state government, federal government, local government, all investing simultaneously in Jefferson Street in big ways that the private sector will be strong enough to kind of pick up that ball and take it down the field and create a new vibrant Jefferson Street," she said.
Despite a two-year difference between the plaza groundbreaking and construction, the project is on schedule.
The work of multiple agencies forced the project to be completed in multiple phases.
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