Callbox Project Organization Meeting Saturday

This Saturday (8/27/2011) at 3:30 in Conference Room 2 at the Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Neighborhood Library, the Shaw Main Streets Design Committee is holding an organizational meeting for the execution of a project to repurpose thirteen historic police and fire callboxes throughout the neighborhood.  The cast iron relics, many over century old, will each be transformed into beautiful historical markers, providing information about the surrounding area and each receiving an artistic overhaul.

The call boxes, some of which were originally the bases for gas streetlights, facilitated calling for assistance in the days before cellphones. The boxes covered by the project are located at 10th and N, 8th and N, 6th and N, 7th and P, 6th and R, 6th and S, 9th and S, 8th and T, 7th and Rhode Island, 8th and Q, 9th and Rhode Island, and 10th and Rhode Island. All are in various states of disrepair – some are mostly intact, some are missing parts and some are missing altogether.

One of the callboxes to be repurposed

Upon completion of the transformations, the callboxes will be another interesting draw to the neighborhood. Maps will be available at local businesses for self-guided tours, a website will be set up to help with their promotion, and local youth will be trained for providing tours of the call boxes.

If you are interested in taking a substantive, leading role in the project, please rsvp to shawcallbox@gmail.com and plan on making this Saturday’s meeting. Some of the upcoming tasks that will be assigned include fundraising, analyzing best practices of similar projects elsewhere, revising/editing text for callbox plaques, securing historic images for the plaques, and obtaining quotes from vendors on casting plaques and missing parts.