Preserving the legacy of Moorestown’s West End

Four years ago, Moorestown resident Gregory Chinn acted on something big.

“I looked out the window and thought, ‘This park is a mess. It needs to be fixed.’”

That happened to be Yancy Adams Park, a place that Chinn lives right behind. He addressed council members at a meeting one night, asking for the space to be renovated.

“It needed a makeover; the trees were dead, the pavement was messed up, and the grass wasn’t being cut,” Chinn said.

Chinn invited council to come look at the park with him and they did. They acknowledged that it was in bad shape and that got the ball rolling on the work. Chinn asked for the park to receive improvements like new fencing, an updated pathway and more, and it all came through secured state funding and grants – including $500,000 state funding via State Sen. Troy Singleton.

“They heard me,” Chinn said of town council. “It all culminated in being able to have this block party to commemorate not only what went on here, but also the revitalization of this park.”

Chinn loves to see how the park has been transformed into something beautiful. “They have done a great job and there’s still more to be done. They got on it and got it the way that it should be. I asked for a lot and I’m still asking. I’m not going to let it go until I feel that this park is where it should be.”

The block party Chinn referred to earlier was the West End Remembrance Day Block Party, held on Sept. 19. Yancy Adams Park is a historic pocket park that sits on the former site of the West End Community Center (WECC). The center was originated and managed by Black women and men in the West End neighborhood as a space where residents could congregate, celebrate and create programs to build strong community relationships in the face of the discriminatory policy which prohibited African Americans from using the Community House on Main Street. 

Dedicated on June 18th, 1977, to the memory of co-establishers Roxanna Yancy and James Adams, the WECC was a social and cultural hub for the town’s Black residents from 1944 to 1968. The space hosted everything from recreational activities to weddings, dances, parties, classes and more from 1944 to 1968. Roxanna was responsible for the establishment of the first kindergarten for Black children in Moorestown.  She was active in the International League for Peace and Freedom and through her efforts, a branch of the YWCA was established at the west end of Moorestown. James was the director of the WECC for nearly 25 years. He was America’s first Black Eagle Scout and was an influential mentor and role model for the youths who spent time at the WECC.

The West End Remembrance Day Block Party not only honored the elders who frequented the WECC, but there was also a live podcast taping of the stories and memories that the elders shared with attendees. Moorestown native Randy Holmes left home to go to college in 1965. He currently lives in Morristown, NJ, but he came back for the occasion. His grandparents built their original house on Holmes Terrace near Baker Elementary School during the Great Depression. Some of his favorite memories of attending the WECC include playing basketball on the former courts and sitting outside and hanging out with the guys.

“It was the kind of place to go if you wanted to get away from your parents,” Holmes said. “You could come here every day of the week right after school until nine o’clock at night. If you were to hang out, this is where you would hang out. When we grew up, there was only one restaurant in town. You either hung out here, or you hung out at the Community Center.”

Herbert Yancy, Roxanna’s great-nephew, grew up in town. Herbert was born in 1954 when Roxanna was in her 70s, so he didn’t get a chance to really know her. Roxanna considered Herbert’s father, Herbert Sr., like her son. Learning about her legacy has been a great experience for him and he loved everything about growing up in town, from hanging out with friends to playing basketball and attending parties.

“Everybody knew everybody, it was great,” Herbert said.

Moorestown natives Perry Wright and Joseph Hall reminisced on seeing friends, family and neighbors at the WECC daily, playing sports with friends and hanging out, but the WECC was also the home of the Blue Chips, a group of about 25 who participated in things like helping kids go to school and helping to plan parties at the center. Hall shared some photos of the Blue Chips at the block party and was happy to see the site thriving with a new community making memories. The party’s live podcast taping was part of a special ongoing project – the West End Community Center Oral History Project. The project was conceived by Moorestown native Richard Gray, and it focuses on gathering oral histories, photographs and artifacts related to the WECC. When Gray was six years old the WECC closed for good, so a lot of the memories he has of the center are from stories that he’s heard.

“Even after it closed, it was still larger than life for a lot of us,” Gray said. “What I’m really loving is that this is how I remember the West End, the activity and the community. For me, I’m seeing the images of the people I looked up to who are now my peers, and it’s really gratifying.”

Chinn went to nursery school at the WECC, so he knew Roxanna and James. Knowing how much they had helped him and others, asking for the park to be made over was the least he could do for them.

“We need to have a park that looks decent that reflects what they have done, and they have done a lot,” Chinn said. “Mr. Adams was the best man in the world. If you needed something, you could ask him. The West End Community Center kept us all together. Everything you needed was right there.”

The revitalization of Yancy Adams Park represents both historic preservation and an important investment in one of the crown jewels of the community, said Mayor Quinton Law.

“With the next phase of construction expected to continue this fall, town council is excited to see this vision continue to take shape,” Law added. “Yancy Adams Park and the history of the West End deserve to be preserved, celebrated and carried forward for future generations.”