The Impact on Hope Cemetery

Hope Cemetery, first established in 1836 is home too many of the town and Knox Colleges initial founders. Perhaps the most historically dense site in the city of Galesburg, Hope Cemetery lies tucked away past main street separated from the town by bars, a roundabout, gas stations and a large apartment complex. A seen in the image displayed the addition of the new public library offers Hope Cemetery a route back into present day Galesburg and the opportunity for locals to rediscover the towns history. The new library is the largest most expensive city project in recent history totaling 21.3 Million Dollars in donations and city funds. A project of this magnitude attracts attention to the desolate corner of Main Street where Hope Cemetery had become drowned by urbanization. The impact of revitalizing the founding identity of Galesburg via the incoming library to Hope Cemetery is essentially an expansion of Main Street. The library expands areas of interest off Main St. to once more draw attention to the areas by the cemetery. A cemetery which promotes and posses Galesburg's founding history, and even the abolitionist civil war ties that exist within the city. Main Street is symbolic of the town of Galesburg, it is a summary or highlight representing the city. To reconnect an area so significant, to a site possessing so much of the historical background of a town is to reconnect a city to its core. In the same manner as the restoration of Hope Cemetery by Knox Students in the 1980's, the library offers a revival of this historical site. A chance to impact significantly the city once more through myth, identify, and town lore/history.