Upper Arlington school district, city plan to recognize former slave

The city of Upper Arlington and Upper Arlington Schools will partner to build a plaza that will recognize a former slave who started a school for Black children and established a cemetery that was erased from the landscape when the former Upper Arlington High School was built.

Litchford Plaza will be named in honor of Pleasant Litchford, who became a master blacksmith and settled in the area that is now Upper Arlington.

After being given his freedom sometime before 1842, he built a successful business and purchased the land where Upper Arlington High School, Northam Park and Tremont Elementary School sit.

Litchford established a school for Black children and was a founding member of the historic Second Baptist Church, which provided an important voice in the anti-slavery movement.

He also built a cemetery for Black residents. However, it was paved under the parking lot for the old Upper Arlington High School when it was constructed in 1956.

Litchford died at the age of 89 in 1879. While the history for decades has been largely ignored, UA Schools officials have led a charge to implement history lessons about Litchford into the elementary curriculum, and now they intend to build a memorial to Litchford and the cemetery.

Officials expect Litchford Plaza will be constructed by early summer.

The school district will provide $200,000 for the project, and the city will donate $100,000.

“I feel strongly that our history is our history,” Superintendent Paul Imhoff said. “The first thing we have to do about our history is always be honest about it.”

The plaza will include plaques recalling the significance of Litchford and will be constructed on land just south of the new high school.

City Manager Steve Schoeny said the site’s proximity to the high school and the school’s athletics complex will make it a high-traffic memorial that should draw attention from local residents and out-of-towners who visit the high school.

Schoeny said the project is an opportunity “to really memorialize a piece of Upper Arlington’s history that we all know has been underrepresented, under-talked about, throughout the history of Upper Arlington.”

Chris Potts, chief operating officer for UA Schools, said the plaza will be a place of reflection that also will serve as an educational tool for students.

Litchford Plaza also will be included as a stop on the UA History Trail, a project established by the city and the Upper Arlington Historical Society in 2019 to erect educational markers at sites of historical relevance in the city. nellis@thisweeknews.com @Thisweeknate