The story of St. Lloyd
November 25, 2024
In the heart of SouthPark, a once neglected piece of land has an important story to tell. A new vision plan aims to create a peaceful sanctuary to honor its history.
by Kerry Singe | photographs by Grant Baldwin | renderings courtesy LandDesign
Wayne Johnson visits the wooded site off Colony Road an average of three or four times a week. Sometimes, he picks up branches that have fallen or removes weeds and debris on the ground. Lately, the 71-year-old has been carrying heavy rocks, one by one, and placing them to mark pathways.
Often, Johnson simply sits on a bench underneath the tree canopy and marvels at the beauty around him.
“Can you feel it?” he asks one September day. “The peace. You can just feel the spirit of what this place is about.”
The place Johnson is referring to is the former home of St. Lloyd Presbyterian Church, an African American congregation, and its cemetery, which sit on the northwestern corner of Colony and Sharon roads. The congregation moved to Grier Heights in the 1920s before the church closed in 1966. With the original building gone and the cemetery’s lack of headstones, traces of the congregation faded as SouthPark grew up around it into a bustling residential and urban center.
Now, thanks to an extraordinary effort by the private developer who bought the site and the congregation’s dedicated descendants, the history of the church and its congregation will be preserved and celebrated.
This summer, a company began clearing dead and decaying trees from the site. More gravesites have been identified. And plans have been drawn up to create a space that will honor the land’s history and provide a public space for the community to gather in and enjoy.
If all goes as hoped, a public park with reflective spheres, natural play areas, a bell tower and an interactive historical exhibit will start taking shape next year.
“It’s a different type of project than what we typically do in Charlotte. It’s such an important story to tell,” says Shaun Tooley, a partner and landscape architect with LandDesign, the firm hired to develop a vision plan for the property. “This can be a really engaged park. It’s a hidden gem, and all we’re doing is polishing it up.”
Clockwise from left: St. Lloyd Presbyterian Church, est. 1867; a marker on the cemetery site; renderings of the proposed vision plan include preserving a large oak tree (1) and an overlook deck (2) with sculptures by artist Monique Luck.
Forgotten history
Three years after slavery was abolished in the U.S., a group of African American members of Sharon Presbyterian Church asked the church elders if they could build a house of worship for colored people. The church agreed, and the Catawba Presbytery, an all-Black presbytery formed in the Carolinas during Reconstruction, bought 1 acre of land in what was called Sharon Township for $25.
The congregation included many of the tenant farmers and sharecroppers who worked on the large cotton farms that were prevalent in the years following the Civil War. The church also served as a school for Black children, until the land was sold to former North Carolina Gov. Cameron Morrison and his wife Sarah in 1926.
In 2004, Grubb Properties bought three parcels of property to build high-rise apartments. One parcel was marked as a cemetery. While it is illegal to destroy a cemetery, the remains can be removed and reburied elsewhere. But Chief Executive Officer Clay Grubb was determined to preserve the site, and he reached out to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission, which studied the area and designated it a Historic Landmark.
The site was left largely untouched for years. Then two years ago, Johnson, a descendant of church members, reached out to Grubb. In what Johnson describes as an easy meeting of the minds, the men agreed to work together, and in 2023, the St. Lloyd Presbyterian Cemetery Foundation was created, with the goal of caring for the cemeteries on Colony Road and in Grier Heights. Grubb donated the SouthPark cemetery site, 2.1 acres of land, to the foundation.
Top left: Writer Kerry Singe speaks with Wayne Johnson at the St. Lloyd site. Below: a proposed entrance near Colony Road and Governor Morrison Street.
New beginnings
In October, Tooley presented a vision plan to the foundation’s board that provides suggestions for preserving and protecting the existing gravesites and older trees, celebrating the site’s historical and cultural significance, educating the public about the history in an interactive way, enhancing the area’s natural beauty, and providing a sanctuary and respite for visitors.
Johnson, who serves as the foundation’s vice president and vice chairman, says he is thrilled with what Tooley has designed.
Multiple entrances are proposed, including a main entrance off Colony Road that may feature a bell tower and a functional bell that chimes. There also are plans to build seating around what is being called the heritage tree, the largest hardwood oak on the site. Johnson wants the site to evoke the feeling of going back in time to the 1800s.
“This is where our story begins after enslavement,” Johnson says. “When you take a seat and listen while looking around, it will take you to another place.”
Plans call for a wooden overlook deck and a low stone wall with 18 to 24 inches of stacked stone to mark the boundary of the 184 gravesites that have been identified. The plan recommends incorporating some of the natural items already available into a play area, such as tree-slice stepping stones or using a reclaimed hollow tree stump as a play tunnel. Artist Monique Luck, working with Tooley, has proposed the installation of reflecting spheres, which she describes as polished stainless steel, freestanding sculptures that act like floating balls quietly reflecting the space.
“The concept is seeds of growth, and the artwork is inspired by the idea of seeds planted from the ancestors and the forward momentum of community,” Luck says.
Grubb, who serves as president and chairman of the foundation board, is pleased to see progress. Once the board approves the LandDesign vision plan, the foundation will need to raise money to build the park. Mecklenburg County, in its most recent budget, committed $33,000 to be shared by the SouthPark and Grier Heights sites.
“It is wonderful to have descendants of the cemetery on the board to honor their ancestors and help restore its glory,” Grubb says. “I am excited to turn this space into a much greater asset for the community.”
Clockwise from top left: The cemetery site today; a proposed “nature play” area for the site; map detail of the proposal; a rendering of new decking amid existing trees; Wayne Johnson.
Greater connections
The proposed park also fits in well with larger plans for SouthPark, as outlined in the SouthPark Forward 2035 Vision Plan put together by SouthPark Community Partners (SCP), a nonprofit group that promotes SouthPark’s economic, cultural and residential development. SouthPark Community Partners helped pay for the LandDesign study and is supporting the foundation’s work.
“Everyone who spends time in SouthPark should have the opportunity to learn about the St. Lloyd congregation and to honor the memory of the people who are buried there,” says Adam Rhew, president and CEO of SCP. “Public spaces are where our community comes together, and that is exactly what’s happening with the coalition of people who are uniting behind this project. The space will be a natural sanctuary that is beautiful, peaceful and inspiring.”
Johnson believes in the site’s potential for healing and bringing the community together, something he says is already happening. For example, Johnson says that since he’s been working on the land, curious neighbors from the nearby apartment complex have stopped to talk with him and a few have joined in the clean up. One neighbor asked if it would be OK to add rose bushes and planted Mister Lincoln roses.
“This project has sparked conversations,” Johnson says. “We’re creating a place for the community to come and enjoy so they can live in harmony.
“We did this with a little faith, and now my faith has grown,” Johnson says of preserving and honoring his ancestors. “They ain’t seen nothing yet.” SP
