Sycamore Trail Development Project

to Honor Westerville's Past

A half-acre project in development at the northwest corner of Africa Road and Polaris Parkway will build upon Westerville’s first-class parks and trails system while honoring the City’s past. The Sycamore Trail development will feature symbolic elements including a shallow, stream-like water feature, the Big Dipper star constellation, information panels and an installation representing the North Star. The development will be rounded out with a wetland feature, gathering spaces, seating, overlooks and landscaping.

However, an important part of the project is to highlight the significance of the Underground Railroad and Westerville’s role during that time period. To understand this, one must recognize the history and meaning behind Westerville’s Africa Road.

According to Westerville History Museum manager Nina Thomas, Samuel Patterson settled north of Westerville, in the small village of East Orange in 1824. A farmer, Patterson built several barns to store harvested food and grain and to house his animals. But those barns also served another purpose: to hide formerly enslaved people who were fleeing from slavery in the South.

Miriam Alston, the widow of plantation owner Oroon Alston, entrusted her slaves to her lawyer with $300 and an understanding that he provide a way for them to travel to a free state upon her death in 1855. Five years after Patterson reached central Ohio, a group of 28 freed African Americans began their journey from the Alston Plantation in North Carolina to freedom in East Orange.

“Today, Alum Creek Reservoir covers much of the original village, but some homes still stand and there is a road, called Africa Road, linking Westerville to the former town,” Thomas said. “It reminds us of the people who escaped from slavery in search of the freedom to govern their own lives.”

For more information on the Underground Railroad and Westerville’s role, please visit the Westerville History Museum (110 S. State St.) accessed through the Westerville Public Library.

Proposed Site Plan PLAN

Additional information will be available at www.westerville.org/parks.