News
Road Reopens After 15 Years
Date:
March 2006
By DAVID R. ROSS
The Leaf-Chronicle
Members of the Mount Olive Cemetery Historical Preservation Society will
pick up the pace of their cleanup efforts and interpretive programs for
the cemetery with the reopening of Rollins Drive to traffic.
City Council members voted Thursday to again open the city street, which
had been closed for 15 years.
Geneva Bell, chairwoman of the preservation society, was pleased with
the council's decision to open the road.
"Hallelujah! Rollins Drive is open again!" she said following the City
Council's vote Thursday.
Mount Olive cemetery has more than 1,000 graves of black Clarksvillians,
and the preservation society is working to clean up the area and
publicize the history of the site. Members are working to clean up
brush, leaves and limbs from the seven-acre cemetery.
"We're working to map out the graves and get information about the
cemetery online," preservation society member James Bland said.
The Clarksville Street Department should be removing a metal guardrail
that blocks one of the two entrances of Rollins Drive off Swift Drive
this week.
Both ends of Rollins Drive connect onto Swift Drive, which runs off
Cumberland Drive. Rollins Drive is only a few hundred feet long and runs
along the boundary of the historic seven-acre cemetery.
"There's a guardrail on one end of Rollins Drive, and we'll be taking
that down immediately and start cleaning up the right-of-way that's
become overgrown and fixing the potholes," said Clarksville Street
Director Jim Durrett.
In 1991, the council "temporarily" closed one entrance of Rollins Drive
at the request of neighbors who complained the secluded area attracted
drug activity and was frequently littered with trash. Phyllis Smith, a
member of the preservation society's board, said it will be easier and
more convenient to police the area and keep it clean with the road
opened.
"With it closed, it's not easy for passing motorists to see what's going
on up there and report suspicious activity," she said.
The Mount Olive Cemetery Historical Preservation Society dedicated the
cemetery at a ceremony last year and has added youth outreach as a part
of its efforts.
"I like coming out to the cemetery and helping out," said nine-year-old
Katana Hawkins, a junior preservation society member.
The preservation society also plans to have educational displays and
programs interpreting the historical significance of the cemetery. Bell
said everyone can benefit from being able to visit the cemetery and
learn about how black people and communities helped shape the city,
region, state and nation.
Smith said cleanup efforts and interpretive programs will be enhanced
with better access to the cemetery.
"Now buses of school children can come into the area once we get it
ready for the public to visit," Bell said.
David Ross covers city government, and courts, and can be reached by
telephone at 245-0262 or by e-mail at davidross@theleafchronicle.com