Kristin Rourke, a UVA graduate student from Houston, Texas and intern with the City’s Neighborhood Development Services department, came up with the idea of identifying historic and interesting sites around the city, recording a brief profile and make it available to all via mobile phone. Now, the city’s new Audio Tour website is up and running, and the city’s Public Works department is in the process of putting up the signs.
“I thought it was a great thing to have in Charlottesville as a way of letting people hear more of the stories of the places that they see without having to actually have an official tour, having to buy a tour guide and read it,” she said. “It’s a different way of telling the history [of the city.]”
More after the photo.
Sample signage for the historic sites. Photo courtesy of City of Charlottesville.
The 10 chosen sites, which include the Albemarle County Courthouse, Jackson Park, the Old County Jail, the Downtown Mall, the Nancy West House site, the Sacajawea statue and Vinegar Hill among others, will be highlighted by a sign with both a telephone number and a QR code, which will allow users to link directly to the audio recording for the corresponding site.
The project is sponsored and supported by the Charlottesville Historic Resources Committee (CHRC). Rourke said she tried to keep expenditures to a minimum and estimates the initial cost to less than $500. Specifically, $330 went for signage and the additional cost of the phone line through next year, according to Mary Joy Scala, the city’s Preservation and Design Planner.
The recordings feature the voices of residents and elected officials including Mayor Dave Norris, City Councilor Satyendra Huja, former mayor Kay Slaughter and former Sheriff Cornelia Johnson among others.
“We wanted to have a variety, male voices, female voices, old voices, young voices…so that people could have a different audio experience,” said Rourke.
An audio or visual tour of the city’s most historic sites was also brought forth in one of the Dialogue on Race’s initial study circles, but Rourke said she that although has worked mainly with CHRC members, she doesn’t rule out possible future partnerships.
“In the future I may work with them, because the goal is to add more sites, eventually, because there is so much more than just these first ones,” said Rourke. “I think it would be great to add the Jefferson School.”