A local historic neighborhood is having a long-anticipated celebration early next month.
Cherry Avenue Revitalization Enterprises LLC (CARE) will be hosting a street sign dedication event for the Hornsby Subdivision, next month.
Walter Spurgeon Hornsby Sr. was the president, and a co-founder, of Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance, which launched in Augusta in 1898, the first insurance provider for African Americans in Georgia.
He would later go into the real estate business, owning Hornsby-McCoy Realty, and would develop the Hornsby Subdivision between 1953 and 1955. The elementary school named for him opened at its original location on Laney Walker Boulevard in 1960.
Janice Allen Jackson grew up in the Hornsby subdivision, her father among its first homeowners. She’s one of the organizers of CARE, which has been working toward improvements in the neighborhood.
“We thought in terms of physical brick and mortar development and improvement of properties in the area,” said Jackson, who also attended W.S. Hornsby Elementary. “The houses have been around since the 50s, and some of them have not been well maintained.”
CARE aims to not only refurbish homes in the area, but to draw attention to its historical significance.
“We felt like the street sign project would be a way to do that,” Jackson said.
In August of last year, CARE received approval from the Augusta Commission to work with the Engineering Department to add sign toppers to 10 intersections in the area, including Cherry Avenue and Laney Walker Extension.
This project also entailed the design and installation of a sign for the subdivision. Mayor Garnett Johnson, members of the Augusta Commission and members of the Hornsby family are to attend the official dedication ceremony of the signage.
“If you go to some of the other neighborhoods, particularly older neighborhoods in the city like Old Town and Summerville, they have a logo on their streets,” Jackson said.
The Hornsby Subdivision Sign Dedication Ceremony, free and open to the public, will be at the corner of Cherry Avenue and Rachael Street in Augusta on Sept. 7, at 10:30 a.m.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
