CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) – A group of neighbors in Charleston are working to preserve a part of the community’s history. They are getting started by installing new bright and colorful signs with art that showcases what life was like in the early 1900s.

“This place matters and when people discover it, it’ll go big,” said Shauna Steadman, who lives in the community. Steadman has a love for history. She’s one of many people who have been working on a project to share more about the history of the Luna Park neighborhood on Charleston’s West Side. The area was the site of a community amusement park from 1912 to 1923. There are now four gateway signs to mark and beautify the area. Each is over five feet in diameter.

“Each sign is at a corner of the historic district to kind of show you where it all begins and ends, which is Delaware Avenue to Glenwood Avenue and Kanawha Boulevard and Main,” explained Corey Zinn, Marketing and Creative Consultant for the project.

The West Side Neighborhood Association’s Luna Park Historic District Committee worked together with the City of Charleston and the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation to bring the vision to life.

“What we are seeing here is a riverboat coming down to transport people and they came from as far away as Ohio and other places and accessed it by the river,” Steadman explained, pointing to one of the new signs. “Then they docked and they’d come here to Luna Park. Thousands of people came to the park when it was up and running.”

Beyond the signs there are also videos and interviews explaining the area’s past on a website created to showcase the history of the region. They’ll be putting up more signs later this year to help people learn more.

“We’d like to see more people buying homes and investing in the West Side,” Zinn said. “That would be a huge success.”

There is a lot more to this story as well. 13 News is working on a more in-depth piece that will be airing next Tuesday as part of our recognition of Black History Month.