Today was a gloomy day to be walking around, but we learned a lot more about the College Hill neighborhood.
You can somewhat see the tall buildings downtown.
Piety Hill - This was the first name of the neighborhood, due to the establishment of the Methodist college, Greensboro College, and the nearby College Place Methodist Church. The word "piety" specifically means, being pious, with religious devotion and reverence to God.
West End - This name comes from it being the western area of expansion in Greensboro, and it is also the hill running west of downtown Greensboro.
College Hill - The neighborhood was renamed College Hill after UNCG was established in 1891. College Hill seems to be a fitting name for the neighborhood since it is surrounded by a college campus on either side.
Infill:
Infilling a porch: We saw one example where it seemed like having another closed-in room was more important to the homeowner than having a porch. In the bottom left corner of this picture, you can see where the original porch has been closed in, adding another indoor room to the house.
Infilling a farm: From our discussion as we walked on Thursday, it almost seemed like most of the Greensboro area was previously farmland, but has been infilled to create a city. I imagine that most of the buildings that we see today sit on what used to be farmland of some sort. I guess that they were infilled because it was necessary for the expansion of the city.
Infilling a church: The massive church that we looked at took the place of several homes on the corners of Mendenhall and Walker is a great example of infill. Also, the parking lot across the street from it is an infill of previous homes. The parking lot leaves the space no good for anything but parking.
Infilling an apartment: There was one specific apartment building that looks very out of place for the area, the big brick one. Patrick said that it was built in the '70s, I think, and I assume that it was built to accomodate the growth of students from the surrounding colleges.
push further in your writing to go beyond description of what you're seeing...moving to explaining your thinking about the values embedded in the porch, farm, church, apartment. all of these changes to the neighborhood hold keys to our understanding the political, social, and economic reasons that persons have acted in the past. in aggregate, they inform us about the city as a breathing and ever-changing organism. so often we pass through everyday landscapes without stopping to think about and assess the implications of the landscape to our place in the world. what do YOU think about these various places, details, and ideas....THAT is the purpose of these reflections.
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