By Eagle Newswire
Greenwood Rising, the new history center in the Greenwood District being built by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission (Centennial Commission) will be built on land located at the southeast corner of Greenwood and Archer, Sen. Kevin Matthews informed the members on Monday.
The Hille Foundation and 21 North Greenwood, LLC, already in the process of developing the land, halted construction and moved the site of a planned mixed-use building to donate the land to the Centennial Commission. Matthews says, “In addition to this generous gesture, the Hille Foundation has long been engaged with the Centennial Commission’s work.” Matthews described the new site as a prime location situated just north of the Frisco Tracks, an important symbolic marker in the Greenwood District positioned so as to allow for walkability from a bustling point near “Deep Greenwood” and located at the single most iconic entrance into the Greenwood District.
Greenwood Rising will be built to the same specifications as originally planned. The Centennial Commission’s Pathway to Hope connecting to John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park, though soon-to-be reconfigured, will also remain a crucial part of the new Greenwood District experience.
The news comes less than two weeks after the Centennial Commission announced that it had been unable to reach an agreement with the Greenwood Cultural Center (GCC) board to build Greenwood Rising on the GCC property
“We will be able to begin construction immediately,” Matthews wrote.