ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 13, 1995 TAG: 9512130007
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-9 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: Associated Press
As Elizabeth Kelley Smith sits in her house on Preston Avenue, she remembers when the only things around Kellytown were grass, small trees and a dirt road.
When she was born in a house there more than 70 years ago, Preston Avenue wasn't even part of the big city of Charlottesville, but only an undeveloped area around it.
But you don't have to go to Mrs. Smith's house to learn about the history of her neighborhood.
Kellytown is as close as your computer.
Oral histories from Mrs. Smith and three other Kellytown residents have been posted on the Internet through Monticello Avenue, a community computer server that provides information to anyone around the world who wants to know about the Charlottesville community. Other interviews will be posted next spring with the help of Venable Elementary School students.
The oral histories on the Internet are the first part of a project by University of Virginia students to teach elementary school students to do the same thing, said Mohini Shapero, a graduate student at the Curry School of Education.
``The most important thing is the idea of getting children involved in their own local history, from the primary source,'' Ms. Shapero said. ``Not from a textbook, but the mouths of the people themselves.''
But another important element is the opportunity for older members of the community to share their experiences, she said.
``It's important to think of the subjects of the interview and how nice it is for them to tell their stories and have people really, genuinely interested in what their lives were like in Charlottesville,'' she said.
The interviews on the Internet are with four black residents from Kellytown, which is bounded by Preston, Rugby and Madison avenues, as well as Rose Hill Drive.
It is named for Alexander Kelly, a freed slave who worked as a plasterer and built a house in that area three years after the Civil War.
Mrs. Smith, in her transcript, talks about her birth in 1919, and about how the neighborhood has changed since. She talks about how people would meet at clubs and churches, ``because you couldn't use the telephone and do all that.''
She remembers when her father - known as the ``mayor'' of Kellytown because he would help others - would sprinkle the road with water to keep down the dust. She recalls when her father paid to have a sewer line brought to his house from the white areas of Charlottesville, and how children came to the home just so they could use something other than an outhouse.
She also remembers when white and black children would play together, and the increased freedom she felt when moving from Virginia to New Jersey.
``You had more freedom, you could go to different places, you could sit where you wanted, and my baby was born in the hospital there. We were all white and black together,'' she said.
But she later adds: ``Some places up there did have places where blacks could not go, they had segregated movie theaters and places like that. You find it all over. Even now, they have some places that they do not want the blacks to go.''
Mrs. Smith is the great-great-grandniece of Alexander Kelly, she said in an interview at her home. She said oral histories sounded interesting and exciting.
``I never thought, as old as I am, that anybody would be interested in my life,'' she said.
Laura Reeves Robinson said she and her husband found many real estate agents in the 1950s who would not sell to black residents. She also recalls the petition neighbors started to keep what is now the residential area of Preston Avenue from being turned into a four-lane roadway.
Glen Bull, an assistant University of Virginia professor who supervises Ms. Shapero, and David Shumaker, the coordinator for Monticello Avenue, said the project shows how technology can create closer connections between neighborhoods, schools and residents.
The work of Charlottesville teacher Barbara Rivers, who is coordinating the Venable Elementary School aspect of the project, and Ms. Shapero are vital to the success of initiatives like oral history on the Internet, Bull said.
``It is not about the technology, it is about how you have one-on-one interaction,'' he said.
The address of the Monticello Avenue community server is http://avenue.gen.va.us/. When the main menu appears, choose ``Community,'' then ``Neighborhoods.'' The oral histories can be found under the Kellytown neighborhood section.
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