A ribbon-cutting is scheduled June 27 for Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing Park in LaVilla, Downtown Investment Authority CEO Lori Boyer told the DIA board May 15.
The park at Lee and Adams street has been under construction for three years. It includes a performance stage, a restored shotgun house and a sloping lawn bordered by concrete letters spelling out the song’s name.
The park honors the song written in the early 1900s by brothers and Jacksonville natives James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, and was designed by landscape architect Walter Hood of Hood Design Studio in Oakland, California.
The ribbon-cutting is scheduled for 10 a.m.
On May 6, city officials celebrated the opening of the Emerald Trail’s LaVilla Link, which runs along Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing Park on Lee Street. The $8.9 million, 1.3-mile LaVilla Link features include a 14-foot-wide concrete pedestrian/bicycle path, shaded porch swings, an observation deck overlooking Lee Street, native plantings and sections with surfaces painted with geometric patterns in emerald and lime green.