UnityPoint Health, the Polk County Housing Trust Fund and community partners will gather to celebrate the Center Street neighborhood by dedicating a historical marker at Iowa Methodist Medical Center on Thursday, Oct. 5. According to a press release, the event will honor the significance of Center Street, a once-vibrant hub of Black culture and life that was lost to urban renewal and the construction of the freeway. By the 1940s and 1950s, the neighborhood was home to barber shops, restaurants, night clubs, grocery stores, pharmacies, lawyer’s offices, funeral homes, pool halls, hotels, laundries, service stations, a movie theater, a photography studio and a print shop. But in the early 1960s, much of the neighborhood was torn down to make room for the freeway. The historical marker event is free and open to the public. It will begin at 4 p.m. in Center Street Park on the Iowa Methodist Medical Center campus. For more information about the event, click here.