After decades of delay, construction is finally underway to complete Cleveland鈥檚 . Organizers broke ground Thursday on the final phase, which will include water features and a polished black concrete terrace.
The $1.9 million project was delayed while they secured funding, battled COVID-19 and faced questions about what form the garden should take, according to Obie Shelton, the garden's executive director.
There will be no busts like in other gardens along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. There will be benches and a gathering space etched with images of the Little Dipper and the North Star 鈥� a nod to their importance during the Great Migration.
鈥淭here's water in the design, which speaks to not only bondage [and the] transatlantic slave trade, but also freedom,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f you crossed the Ohio River, or if you could make it to Lake Erie, there was freedom there.鈥�
W. Daniel Bickerstaff, head of Ubiquitous Design LTD, grew up in the nearby Hough neighborhood and has been working on the garden鈥檚 design since 2007.
鈥淚n this current climate of cultural erasure and suppression, this garden ... would be a great representation of our community in terms of resiliency, endurance and as well as just excellence,鈥� he said.
The garden is on a hill, sandwiched between Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Wheelock Road, which have a 30-foot difference in elevation. Despite that and the years of design revisions, Bickerstaff called the project a 鈥渓abor of love.鈥�
鈥淭here were so many times where I would drive down MLK, doing my research, and I would see African Americans getting their wedding photographs at the Italian garden,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he overall concept was not only to have our weddings here, but have the Italians have their weddings here!鈥�
Bickerstaff first got involved after joining a mayoral task force aimed at advancing the garden. During the groundbreaking, Shelton credited former Cleveland mayors Frank Jackson and Mike White for keeping interest in the project alive.
Work is slated for completion in October, but Shelton said fundraising continues for an endowment to fund ongoing maintenance. Although the garden was first proposed in 1961, it didn鈥檛 secure a place along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive until 1977. The first prominent structure didn鈥檛 exist until the 2016 completion of Bickerstaff鈥檚 鈥淒oor of No Return,鈥� representing the portal for enslaved Africans as they boarded ships bound for America.
