Bellevue, Memorial's hidden neighborhood
Sunday May 5, 3-4:30pm
Surprising how a very stable neighborhood can exist for many decades at its core, while all around it has changed dramatically. The Tennis Hall of Fame has had a huge expansion, local landmarks and dive bars have disappeared. Freebody park has extensive renovation but the edges are very recognizable to previous generations. Yet the residential component is largely unchanged. The area bounded by Bellevue to Annandale, Memorial and Berkeley.
Organized by Larry Davis
Larry Davis is a Michigan native who served in the Navy in Newport and Va Beach. He’s been a software tester for the last 40 years for a variety of companies, and is still working. Larry has lived in Newport (mostly) since 1976 and has lived in his home in the Bellevue neighborhood since 1985. A volunteer 'groundskeeper' at Fort Adams for a dozen years, Larry is fond of cleaning up cemeteries, is an amateur historian of early colonial Newport and Civil War, and a master of useless information.
Participant Reflection
17 of us met in the Stop and Shop parking lot on a blustery Sunday late afternoon. Several people had been at other walks all weekend so it almost had reunion vibes. Larry got us into the Audrain Car Museum and then the very beautiful art store -- Vareika Fine Arts -- next door. We weren’t sure what to notice or talk about, but once we were back outside we all had a real feeling of being invited into some special places because of Larry. He showed us around his neighborhood, introducing us to his neighbor’s dog and describing who has lived on his street for a long time. We paused at the field and debated its history. There was easy conversation among groups and we took the sidewalk-less streets like a pack of locals on the town.
