The Dispatch
A proposed commercial development project on Cotton Grove Road in Lexington will mean saying goodbye to a nearly 75-year-old church building that will be torn down to make room for new retail, restaurant and office buildings.
The Lexington City Council approved by consent Monday night the issuance of a major zoning permit that will allow a Charlotte-based commercial development company to move forward with its plans to purchase the former Fairmont Presbyterian Church property at 1502 Cotton Grove Road.
Once purchased, the development company will build two commercial buildings on the property after the church is demolished, The current owners are listed as Fairmont Presbyterian Church and Jan Shuler.
The Dispatch
Their names are not known. Their birth dates, nor date of death are known. In fact, no one really knows how many bodies are buried in a mass grave site for slaves in the Lexington City Cemetery.
The Rev. Dr. Arnetta Beverly does know this, however the men and women buried near the single rock and slab marker deserve remembering. We are the descendants of those slaves, she said. I think they need to be recognized because we really are standing on their shoulders.
Beverly s congregation at St. Stephen United Methodist Church will hold the second annual Service of Commemoration for the slaves buried at the site at 2 p.m. Feb. 21. The gravesite is near the North State Street side of the cemetery. The congregation held a commemoration and committal service last year at the cemetery.
All roads lead to grandma: Lexington woman honored with street naming
The Dispatch
Francis Burns has seen a lot of changes in the past 45 years she has lived off of Cotton Grove Road in Lexington. The most recent and, according to her, amazing change is that city officials have named the alley behind her house after her in honor of the contributions she has given to the community.
“It was really a surprise,” Burns said. “I was shocked, but I am so proud and tickled.”
Burns is the first recipient of a new honorary street designation program the Lexington City Council approved in November.