The City of Hastings allocated $100,000 to start its Community Investment Fund, which provides grant dollars to community organizations to make improvements on city-owned property.

One of the six recipients last year was the group Building Remembrance for Reconciliation (BR4R), which has plans for a memorial in Levee Park commemorating the early Black heritage of Hastings and the congregation of Brown’s Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church that was destroyed by arson in 1907.

Plans for the powerful memorial are still in the works. Heidi Langenfeld from BR4R shared a concept with the Hastings City Council at its meeting Monday, March 20.

Langenfeld said several artists were invited last fall to a gathering at the Art Space building and were told the story of Brown’s Chapel and given a mission statement.

“They spent the rest of the day planning and thinking,” Langenfeld said.

The artists were brought to the nearby location where the memorial will be built in Levee Park along Tyler Street.

“We want it to be an attractive space for visits, reflection and events,” said Langenfeld.

She said the goal for the memorial is to “create opportunities for conversation and discussion about race relations in our community while addressing reconciliation. We think this space is an awesome space to do that in.”

The concept shared with the council was developed by Twin Cities artists Micah Lee Anders and Christopher Harrison working with advisor/collaborator Seitu Jones. The piece it titled “Their Souls Run Deep,” and it features five concrete benches with clear polycarbonate panel backs shaped like stained glass windows. At one end of the oval is a wall that gives the appearance of Brown’s Chapel. The etched concrete floor of the memorial will contain messages and the names of Brown’s Chapel members.

“It was a space of their own, where they could worship God without shame or fear,” the artists wrote of the memorial. “This piece is also meant to commemorate that destruction of their sacred space besides the celebration of the community that was here.”

Langenfeld said the group is still working on designs, and this isn’t necessarily final.

“It’s still in progress,” she said.

Councilmembers were impressed by what they saw.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Trevor Lund said. “I didn’t expect that. I’m pleasantly surprised. It’s really beautiful, really cool.”