Odd Fellows Reanimation
By Kristi Hintz
Anyone can have an impact on the community in which they live,” says Katherine Ambroziak, professor in the College of Architecture and Design. “This,” she adds, “is one of the premises behind the Odd Fellows Cemetery Reanimation Project.”
Odd Fellows Cemetery, one of the first African American cemeteries in Knoxville, dates back to 1880. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows began in 18th-century England, when it was considered “odd” that people would organize for the purpose of giving aid to those in need—without recognition or reward—and pursuing projects for the benefit of humanity. The Odd Fellows chapter in Knoxville was an African American organization that established the cemetery as a final resting place for blacks in the community.
Ambroziak and other members of the college—professors Brian Ambroziak, Ted Shelton, and Tricia Stuth—have teamed up with the Knoxville Reanimation Coalition (KRC) to restore the cemetery, with hopes that the community will carry on their work with a new sense of pride in their neighborhood and its history.
“You do not have to be an important or famous person to get involved in your community,” says Ambroziak. “This project got started with that notion—to get people interested in their community, to instill pride and influence a desire to give back.”
Educational Location
View Odd Fellows Cemetery in a larger map
Located near the Dandridge Avenue and Morningside Park neighborhoods, the cemetery is within walking distance of two schools, Austin East High School and Vine Middle School. Students in the communities have walked past Odd Fellows for decades. For as long as many can remember, the cemetery has been overgrown with shrubbery, not well maintained like other cemeteries in the area. And very few know the history of those who are interred there.
“People buried in Odd Fellows had strong ties with the community in their day,” Ambroziak says. “Some were notable individuals but most were average citizens, many of whom, through business, education, and community activity, had a profound impact on society. This project enables us to illustrate the history of people in the community. We can then demonstrate to those who live there now that an ordinary person can give back to the neighborhood, much as those who preceded them did many years ago.”
KRC is overseeing a second project, the Odd Fellows Scholars Program, in conjunction with the cemetery reanimation project. As part of the program, the group plans to work with students in the middle and high schools to research the history of those buried in the cemetery—Cal Johnson, a prominent East Knoxvillian and former slave who became the city’s first black millionaire, and nationally known artists Beauford and Joseph Delany, for instance.
The cemetery’s proximity to area schools and surrounding communities influenced KRC’s plan to make the restoration project an educational tool for students. KRC plans to integrate Austin East and Vine students into the project by letting the students use their research and communication skills to bring to life the forgotten memories of those buried in the cemetery. The scholars program will soon be integrated into the curricula of area schools with assistance from School of Art Professor Sarah Lowe.
Community Research
The scholars program will initially focus on notable people buried in the cemetery, like Johnson and the Delanys, but eventually research will focus on those who were involved in the area churches and schools, as well as community activists.
“Through studying these individuals and their contributions to the community, we hope to portray role models for the neighborhood. This will help instill a sense of pride in students—as well as residents—of the area, and show them how easy it is to give back to their neighborhood.
“This project is different in that it’s about developing an urban space and investigating how that contributes to a community,” Ambroziak says. “Having pride in your neighborhood physically can be tied to your self-worth.”
In addition to what students and residents may learn about their community’s history, another goal of the project is to reactivate the space for use and engagement in the neighborhood.
“The goal here is to involve the community in terms of reclaiming the area,” Ambroziak points out. “Not just cleanup and restoration, but in terms of what the cemetery could actually become, so the community may continually engage it. We wouldn’t want to propose a design without community involvement. Do they want to see the cemetery reactivated? Turned into a park? A memorial? A recreation area? Projects like this start with ideas from the community.”
And to get ideas and feedback from the community, faculty and members of KRC have begun to hold workshops with neighborhood organizations to better gauge the community’s needs and visions for the space.
“We want to make sure that what we start, the community can and will carry on,” Ambroziak says. “The easier it is for members of the community to engage the space, the more likely it will be maintained. We don’t want to design something that they may eventually lose interest in.”
So far, the community has been receptive and excited about the possibilities for Odd Fellows Cemetery.
“Community members are eager to know what they can do to help, and we are thrilled!” Ambroziak says. “This is such a large endeavor that it needs to be met with great momentum and dedication from the community, and so far it has been.”
Reclamation and Transformation
Stephen Scruggs, one of KRC’s founders, grew up in the area and walked by the cemetery on his way to school. He said he thinks the area could become a memorial park. “The project would transform a field of weeds and destroyed tombstones into a park that the neighborhood can be proud of,” says Scruggs, who wants to see the community adopt the project as its own.
“We want to emphasize the fact that this project belongs to the community. We eventually want the community to take control of the idea, of the park, of the scholars program,” Scruggs says.
An “illumination” event was held in late February at the Odd Fellows site to kick off the project and to give neighborhood residents an opportunity to meet coalition members and the faculty and to begin to share their ideas about the project. As part of the event, the cemetery site was decorated with thousands of luminarias decorated by neighborhood kids.
Along with KRC members, the UT professors will continue to hold workshops as ideas develop to present them to the community for feedback. Working with students in the College of Architecture and Design, the professors have developed a preliminary survey of physical, climatic, historical, and cultural information and have begun to explore opportunities for the cemetery to serve as a place of community engagement, activity, and memory.
Students have used the Odd Fellows site as a place to examine and test design strategies involving memorial and scholastic programs. Ambroziak explains, “Although we view the student projects as more academic, focusing on specific issues that may not directly apply to the final design, they bring up issues that may not otherwise have been evident, offering unique approaches to the problem. It’s a learning opportunity for us, as researchers, and for the students.”
The mission of KRC is to educate and create a sense of ownership among members of Knoxville’s African American community through projects that illuminate and valorize its past achievements. The Odd Fellows Cemetery Reanimation Project is KRC’s inaugural project and its official introduction to the Knoxville community.
Additional Coverage
Visit the following links to find out more about the project:
Tags: Architecture • Brian Ambroziak Tricia Stuth • Ted Shelton
