Saving and celebrating Newtown’s stories

A new project will offer a picture of the community’s history from 1914-2014.

There was a time when home remedies made from cobwebs, cotton balls and turpentine cured everything in Newtown. Back then, hospitals would turn their heads at black residents, but that didn’t stop the community from thriving.

Nearly 100 African American-owned businesses dotted Martin Luther King Jr. Way. And when some construction companies refused to build homes in Newtown, residents took matters into their own hands. Literally. They built their own homes, some of which still stand tall today.

Stories such as these are being compiled in the recently launched Newtown Conservation Historic District project. The city-funded initiative aims to piece together a picture of the community’s history from 1914-2014.

As Project Director Vickie Oldham puts it, the project looks at how Newtown residents worked, played and prayed.

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You can follow the Newtown Conservation Historic District project on Facebook or Twitter @newtown_dream. For more information, please contact Vickie Oldham at vickieoldham1@gmail.com.

The project received $50,000 from the City of Sarasota’s demolition fund, which goes toward projects that support historic preservation.

A team of volunteer researchers, ranging from ethnographers to anthropologists to architects, has partnered with local college students to complete the first phase of the project.

At its completion, there will be dozens of video-recorded oral histories and a historic map documenting historically significant properties in Newtown. Along with an interactive website, a walking tour and historic markers will guide people through the community.

It’s been a long time coming for the historically African-American community of Newtown. In the 1980s, former Sarasota mayor and City Commission member Fredd Atkins started playing with the idea of a project that would celebrate Newtown.

“The community will not only learn more about their history and their forefather’s history, they’ll also learn to respect the struggle and respect the opportunities they have now,” Atkins said. “A lot of the things going on today go contrary to this struggle. I think the project will help young people, and new people coming here, celebrate our history and our community.”

There’s also a sense of urgency. Young people are leaving Newtown for the same reason their ancestors first came: jobs.

“The community is consistently dying,” said Jetson Grimes, owner of Jetson’s Unisex Salon — don’t call it a barbershop — on North Osprey.

Grimes hopes the project will remind the greater community that Newton is also a part of Sarasota.

Oldham points to the Rosemary District, the city’s first documented black community.

Today, a plaque commemorates the area’s history, but development and outside investors have slowly pushed out the descendants of those first families.

“I hope that this project will reveal the past so that it can improve the quality of life for African-American residents as we move into the future,” Oldham said.

By Yadira Lopez

Local community leaders want to make Newtown a destination

Local community leaders want to make Newtown a destination

When exploring Sarasota, there are a few iconic spots that come to mind, like Siesta Key, St. Armands and the long stretch of island that is Longboat.

But there’s one place that’s missing, according to a contingent of community leaders from the city’s historically black neighborhood. They want to add Newtown to that list.

“We can compete with anybody,” said Lou Murray, vice president of the grassroots organization Newtown Nation and head of the area’s farmers market. “We have out-of-sight music and the food is unbelievable and nobody can touch us. This is what we do.”

In the last year, the neighborhood has seen an increase in community outreach and programming intended to both serve residents and to attract people from around the city. Newtown now has a farmers market selling fresh produce the first and third Friday and Saturday of every month, and that same market has hosted popular gatherings like the Big Mama’s Collard Greens Fest in October and the recent Reggae Bash.

These initiatives were spawned in large part thanks to Newtown Nation, which was formed in November 2014 by local residents hoping to improve Newtown

By Elizabeth Djinis

Newtown Alive Gives Residents a Taste of Newtown

The Newtown Alive project put on a block party to dedicate Newtown’s newly installed historic markers.

Newtown Alive lead consultant Vickie Oldham had a lot to dance about at the Newtown Redevelopment Office on April 8.

Residents, local officials and Newtown Alive volunteers gathered in the parking lot for the Taste of Newtown block party to dedicate Newtown’s newly installed historical markers.

Eventgoers mingled as trollies took guests on a tour of the 15 markers that commemorate the neighborhood’s history.

In between tours children played games as adults mingled and listened to live music.

“It’s a family affair,” Oldham said.

by: Anna Brugmann

Newtown Honors its History

The Newtown Alive project revealed 15 markers that will mark historic locations throughout Newtown.

Vickie Oldham said she was grateful to find tissues tucked inside the podium at the Robert L. Taylor Community Complex Feb. 18 during the unveiling of 15 historic markers that will be placed throughout Newtown as part of the Newtown Alive project.

Oldham, the project’s lead consultant, said she had a lot of people to thank for the progress of Newtown Alive, a project which has documented this history of Sarasota’s historically African American neighborhoods.

She thanked former Sarasota Mayor Fredd Atkins for beginning discussions about documenting the history of Sarasota’s African American community in 1985 a city commissioner. She thanked her team of researchers, the community for participating in the project and the city of Sarasota for funding its primary phases.

All in all, the event was characterized by gratitude. Speakers applauded the work of community members that came before them — activists, entrepreneurs and educators — who paved the way for a better future.

The contributions of those community members were honored as current members of the Newtown community pulled off thin pieces of cloth that covered reproductions of the plagues.

But even as Newtown celebrated its history, many community members looked to the future.

“(Our history) can’t just stay here,” former president of the Manasota branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History Mark Jackson said. “It has to go to the young people … This is a living history.”

Vickie Oldham said she was grateful to find tissues tucked inside the podium at the Robert L. Taylor Community Complex Feb. 18 during the unveiling of 15 historic markers that will be placed throughout Newtown as part of the Newtown Alive project.

Oldham, the project’s lead consultant, said she had a lot of people to thank for the progress of Newtown Alive, a project which has documented this history of Sarasota’s historically African American neighborhoods.

She thanked former Sarasota Mayor Fredd Atkins for beginning discussions about documenting the history of Sarasota’s African American community in 1985 a city commissioner. She thanked her team of researchers, the community for participating in the project and the city of Sarasota for funding its primary phases.

All in all, the event was characterized by gratitude. Speakers applauded the work of community members that came before them — activists, entrepreneurs and educators — who paved the way for a better future.

The contributions of those community members were honored as current members of the Newtown community pulled off thin pieces of cloth that covered reproductions of the plagues.

But even as Newtown celebrated its history, many community members looked to the future.

“(Our history) can’t just stay here,” former president of the Manasota branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History Mark Jackson said. “It has to go to the young people … This is a living history.”

by: Anna Brugmann

Historic markers will tell the story of Newtown community

15 markers will note Newtown’s development, schools and legacy of activism.

NEWTOWN — Vickie Oldham feels like something is missing when she walks the streets where she grew up.

She felt it when she strolled communities like St. Petersburg or Fort Pierce that honored the history of their black communities through legacy trails and monuments. The self-proclaimed history buff wanted the same thing for her hometown, to tell the story of the neighborhood where she was born and raised. “On Orange Avenue and 35th Street,” she’ll tell you, smiling.

By Elizabeth Djinis

Newtown community celebrates history, leaders

Historic markers celebrate the men and women who championed community’s residents, schools and businesses

SARASOTA — One by one, Vickie Oldham called up members of the Newtown community from the crowd in the Robert L. Taylor Community Complex on Saturday morning, urging them to stand by the historical marker commemorating their impact.

Here were members of the community who had provided some of the area’s first medical services, served in the first education institutions, worked on celery farms or as domestics to make a living. They stood by their markers, the bright orange edges of the poster reproductions peeking out from the plastic wrap. And then, Oldham said the magic phrase: it was time to unveil them.

The rectangular markers were revealed, emblazoned with titles such as “Segregation, Desegregation and Integration” and “Military Service of Newtown Men and Women.” More than 200 people lingered around the markers, looking at their archival photography and detailed descriptions of the community’s history.

“If we’re going to have an unveiling, this is the way to do it,” said Trevor Harvey, president of the Sarasota County NAACP.

by: Elizabeth Djinis