CHAMPAIGN/SAVOY – (Chambana Today) – The Champaign County African American Heritage Trail and the Experience Champaign-Urbana Foundation will debut three signs this week in Champaign and Savoy. The first unveiling will occur on October 9 at 2 p.m. at the Champaign Public Library Douglass Branch in Douglass Park. The second debut will occur on October 11 at 2 p.m. at Burwash Park in Savoy.
The first sign celebrates the importance of Douglass Park and the Community Center on Grove St. in Champaign. Originally built in 1946, the Douglass Center held classes in art, music, and sewing, and hosted activities such as softball, baseball, basketball, track, and tennis. The Drum and Bugle Corp won first place in a competition in New York City in 1968 against 346 other teams from all fifty states. This sign is sponsored by the Champaign Park District.
The second sign in Douglass Park shares the history of the creation of the Douglass Branch Library after beginning in only one room in 1971. The library moved to a donated building on Bradley Ave. until they settled into their current space in 1997. This sign is sponsored by the Champaign Public Library.
On Friday, a third sign will be unveiled at Burwash Park in Savoy, recognizing the Underground Railroad depot owned by Mathias Lane Dunlap. Dunlap was an elected state representative in Chicago who relocated his family in 1856 to what is now known as Savoy. Around 1857-58, he developed an Underground Railroad depot at his home and ran it until the end of the Civil War. He later helped create the “Industrial Institution” in Urbana which became the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Dunlap served as one of the University’s first trustees. This sign is sponsored by the Village of Savoy.