Landscape Information
Nestled between Holland Lane and Hoof’s Run, this narrow, nine-acre park honors the contributions of the city’s African American citizens. Offering borrowed eastern views of Alexandria National Cemetery and the Presbyterian Cemetery, the site incorporates a one-acre burial ground—the Black Baptist Cemetery—established in 1885 by the Silver Leaf (Colored) Society. Neglected over time, the cemetery was used as municipal landfill beginning in the early 1960s. Following the discovery of more than 25 internments (1985–1992), the Norfolk Southern Corporation presented the land in 1995 to the city, which then engaged the landscape architecture and planning firm EDAW (now AECOM), to transform the site and its contiguous acreage into a commemorative landscape and satellite of the Alexandria Black History Museum.
Completed in 1995 the park slopes downward from Holland Lane toward the creek and is characterized by expanses of lawn and lawn terraces planted with trees, including willow and birch. The upper terrace is navigated by a curvilinear brick path that features a circular overlook offering views of burial markers below. Edged by an arched, stone wall, the overlook is embellished with a multi-part bronze sculpture, Truths That Rise from the Roots Remembered (1995), by artist Jerome Meadows. North of the overlook, at the intersection of Holland Lane and Jamison Avenue, is a wooden pavilion that leads to an axial brick path flanked by sloping lawns. This path is anchored by a modest turf mound planted with oaks framed by arced retaining walls intended for seating. A secondary path follows the creek’s edge, characterized by a wetland that was rehabilitated in 2024 and 2025.
