Mountain View Cemetery Revitalization Project,
2007-8

As one part of this effort, the RU Spring 2007 Applied Anthropology class undertook a community-based planning project to help identify ways to revitalize and maintain the Mountain View cemetery as a community-focused heritage site. The class took on the role of an consulting team charged with investigating possibilities for the cemetery's revitalization including restoration and maintenance, funding, and designation as a historic site.  The project took place from January-April 2007, starting with an orientation stage, followed by extensive research, analysis, and write-up stages.
Click here to download an article describing the project’s design, university-community collaboration, and the research team’s results and recommendations in greater detail: Need for Heritage Preservation (Mt. View Cemetery), LaLone 2008.pdf

  1. -A University-Community Planning Project to Research and Develop an Initial Set of Recommendations for Preserving and Maintaining the Mountain View Cemetery, an historic African American Cemetery in Radford, Virginia.  Download a description of the project: Need for Heritage Preservation (Mt. View Cemetery), LaLone 2008.pdf
     

  2. -Undertaken as An Experiential Community-Based  Planning Project for the Spring 2007 Applied Anthropology Class


  1. -Development of a consulting report Mountain View Cemetery: Ideas and Recommendations for the Mountain View Cemetery Committee, Radford, Virginia. Click here to download the full Mountain View Cemetery Report.pdf
     

Photo: Presentation of the consulting report by the Applied Anthropology team to members of the Mountain View Cemetery Committee and RU Service Learning

The team presented its recommendations to the Mountain View Cemetery Committee in a 116-page consulting report, Mountain View Cemetery: Ideas and Recommendations, in May 2007.

The report includes ten sections showing the extent of the project scope:

  1. •Background and methodology

  2. •Recommendations and phasing,
    followed by specific recommendations for:

  3. •Historical preservation

  4. •Historic recognition

  5. •Signs and an entry area

  6. •Landscaping

  7. •Maintenance and caretaking

  8. •Security and trash removal

  9. •Funding

  10. •Community organization and sustainability

To read the report, click here: Mountain View Cemetery Report.pdf  It may take a while to download it.

Project Director:
Mary LaLone (pictured standing on left side)

Applied Anthropology Student Research Team:
Pictured left to right in the back row: Ashley Herwald, Louis Campbell,
 Laura Hale, Morgan Hawkins, Iris Dickerson, Phelan Kelly, and Lydia Rathbun

Asst. Director of Service Learning:
Teresa Dickens (pictured standing on right side)

Participating community members who we especially wish to thank:
Pictured left to right in the front row above: Lulabelle Lewis, Sarah Carter, Queen Alexander;
not pictured: George Turner, Betty Turner, Carlton English. 

Further description of this project is available in:
LaLone, Mary B.
2008   "The Need for Heritage Preservation: Developing a Plan for [Mountain View Cemetery] Revitalization," IN Pride and Preservation: A Sharing Our History Community Project, Mountain View Cemetery. Radford, VA: Radford University.  (Can be downloaded from this web page - see above)

For further information about Anthro-planning and participatory development, see:
LaLone, Mary B.
2009   "Guidelines for a Partnership Approach to Appalachian Community and Heritage Preservation Work." IN Participatory Development in Appalachia: Cultural Identity, Community, and Sustainability, Susan E. Keefe, ed. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. Pp. 201-229.

2005   "An Anthro-planning Approach to Local Heritage Tourism: Case Studies from Appalachia."  NAPA Bulletin
(National Association for the Practice of Anthropology), Vol. 23: 135-150.

Links:
Radford University’s Department of Sociology    


Radford University’s Center for Social and Cultural Research

Radford University's Service Learning, in association with five African-American churches in Radford, Virginia, has developed a long-term service learning project focused on the Mountain View Cemetery, an historic five-acre African-American cemetery in Radford.