Long Hollow Neighborhood History
The Long Hollow Neighborhood is located in downtown Pensacola, between Palafox and Tarragona Streets, and from Wright Street to Avery Street. The early 1900’s found us home to many residents, schools, the City Stables (back when the fire department used wagons pulled by horses), and the City Water and Gas Departments. The Long Hollow Neighborhood Association was fo
rmed in September 1999, in order to improve the conditions of those living within the Long Hollow Neighborhood. Through a planning process, the neighborhood determined its priorities and goals. Residents came together and worked on establishing a Community Center; a Computer Lab which hosts youth and adult education programs; restored street trees and landscaping to five of our main residential streets; conducted many neighborhood wide clean-ups; participated in the City Infill Housing Program to bring four new homes to the neighborhood, and partnered with the Front Porch Revitalization Council to repair, renovate, and beautify five homes in the Long Hollow neighborhood for families who were unable to undertake this daunting task by themselves….Neighbors Helping Neighbors. In the Fall of 2000, association members began focusing attention to one of the neighborhood’s main priorities, creating a neighborhood park where children could play safely and where the community could come together. Board members met with City Staff to discuss the possibility of using the City owned property on Guillemard Street, between Gonzalez and DeSoto Streets. This property had previously been used as overflow parking for the former City Streets & Traffic/Parks and Leisure Offices across the street, and had sat vacant for many years. Neighborhood meetings were held in which residents decided on park features, and the children voted on the play equipment they liked best and in what order we would purchase items. A park plan was developed and residents went to work making our ‘dream’ park a reality. In the Spring of 2001, 25 children accompanied board members to City Hall to ask the City Council to support their park. In July of 2001, City Council voted to use the city owned parcel on Guillemard Street as the new Long Hollow Park. Through partnerships with the Pensacola Community Incentive Program (PCIP) and the Governor’s Front Porch Revitalization Council’s Housing and Community Redevelopment Task Force and the Youth Development Task Force, the Long Hollow Neighborhood Association has been successful in receiving grant funding to purchase play equipment, signage, landscaping, a drinking fountain, an irrigation system for the trees, park benches, sidewalks, entry arch, and built a fountain with an original metal art sculpture. The overwhelming success of the City’s Infill Housing Project with AMR of Pensacola, a not-for-profit community development corporation, at Gonzalez and Guillemard Streets led to increased demand for more new housing in the Long Hollow Neighborhood. AMR of Pensacola built an additional six new homes along Guillemard Street. The homes compliment the existing historic housing in the neighborhood and were in a variety of price ranges to maintain the diversity that Long Hollow enjoys. The Long Hollow Neighborhood worked with the City of Pensacola to remedy flooding problems associated with storm water along Guillemard Street. The City has replaced the century old storm sewer with a new line that now runs underneath the street, and has added a new storm water vault underneath the Cervantes Street Bridge. Once construction was completed, the association used PCIP grant funding to plant new street trees and landscaping along the street that have enhanced the neighborhood feel of this main thoroughfare running through the heart of the neighborhood. The Long Hollow Neighborhood Association also partnered with the North Hill Preservation Association to plant trees along Tarragona Street from Cervantes to Blount Street which enhanced this main thoroughfare also. Future Association goals are to install additional historic street lighting, and to continue our work with the City and the Federal Railway Association in developing a “Quiet Zone” within the City’s urban core.
