This is a close up of the center of Greensboro's Genesis Monument in Fisher Park. The 42 acres which became Greensborough were purchased in 1808 from Scotch-Irish settler Ralph Gorrell for $98.Today, the city has a total area of at 109.2 square miles; only about 4 square miles of the land is water. Last year, we featured the whole Genesis marker (here). Today, we're featuring the CENTER of the center. The details are interesting. You can see that our city's spelling used to be Greensborough. We used to have a Fayetteville Road, Salisbury Road, and Hillsborough Road which lead to cities with those names. You see the antiquated measurement "poles" listed. A pole is the same as a rod and equals 5.5 yards.
Unfortunately, people have little regard for public property and have scratched initials in this plaque. Perhaps we can have students collect money to get it repaired and raise their awareness of the cost of defacing public property. If you are looking for something to do this weekend, head out and see this monument. Also noteworthy is the monument to Sandy Bradshaw who died in 9/11.
Learned another new word today. Thanks for the explanation of "pole."
Posted by: Katja Brown | Thursday, September 08, 2011 at 06:05 AM
There's a UNC website with historical maps of NC posted. If you start around 1760 or so and browse the selection there are maps where you can match up the roads on the Genesis Plaque to their colonial names.
http://www.lib.unc.edu/dc/ncmaps/
Posted by: Hugh | Thursday, September 08, 2011 at 06:54 AM
Thank you so much Hugh for sharing that resource. This could send us in some new directions!
Posted by: GreensboroDailyPhoto | Thursday, September 08, 2011 at 07:06 AM
Very interesting, and pretty.
So, a rod is 5.5 yards. Aha. I'm reading _The Last of the Mohicans_ and kept forgetting to look that up.
And pole is totally new.
Posted by: Dina | Thursday, September 08, 2011 at 08:10 AM
I've been talking with surveyors in different parts of the country a lot lately. The subject of the old days came up with one. He said the young guys on his crews today have no clue about rods, poles and chains. They just set up the equipment push a button and the satellite or laser does the rest.
Posted by: Hugh | Friday, September 09, 2011 at 07:19 AM