FLINT, Mich. (WJRT) – Flint City Council is set to vote Wednesday on a contract that would honor a once-thriving neighborhood demolished in the 1970s to make way for I-475.

Council members are considering a contract, not to exceed $1,239,000.00, with Gross Construction for a memorial park recognizing the St. John Street neighborhood. The St. John Street neighborhood was established in the late 1800s in north Flint and served as a hub for Black-owned businesses and families before it was torn down during urban renewal.

“It was a self-sustaining area,” said James Wardlow, president of the St. John Street Historical Committee.

“Black-owned businesses from here from the Flint River to Michigan Avenue to the west.”

Wardlow, who grew up in the neighborhood, recalled the close-knit community that was lost. “It was a great neighborhood to grow up in,” Wardlow said.

“It was more like a village than anything else, because we had parents throughout the community.”

The St. John Street Historical Committee has been working on the project for years through various city administrations. “It’s welcomed,” Wardlow said.

“We’ve been working on this project for over four years now through various administrations and ups and downs and pitfalls and so forth. And it looks like this time, we’re going to make it for a groundbreaking; early June hopefully.”

If approved, the funds will go toward new signage, parking, pavilions, playgrounds, walking trails and historic kiosks. The memorial park now recognizes the families, homes and businesses displaced when the neighborhood was torn down to make way for I-475.

“Our goal is to revive that history, maintain it and present it,” Wardlow said.

Supporters said the memorial park is an important reminder of the lasting impact the highway project had on generations of residents.