5 Experiences.
1 Heritagescape.
∞ Memories.
Strategic Plan — 2025
Prepared for: Community Partners, Funders, City Leaders, and the Leatherwood Matters Board
(Historic 1951 Cemetery Maintenance Building — 798 E Stone Avenue)
Executive Summary
Historical & Cultural Context
Significance of the 1951 Cemetery Maintenance Building
Program Model: Richland Memories™ (5 Experiences)
STR: Beyond Airbnb — The Cultural Lodging Strategy
Capital Plan & Project Budget
Abandoned Building Act Tax Credit Strategy
Financial Proforma
Greenville Library Partnership Plan
Community Engagement Strategy
Technology Integration (VR/AR/Drone)
Implementation Timeline
Governance & Operating Model
Funding Pathway & Sustainability Model
Appendices (Parcel, Zoning, Maps, History)
A place where land, memory, and story live together—
where every tree remembers, every path holds a name,
and history rises from the ground to meet you.
Bot’s Place: Home of Richland Memories™ is a cultural innovation project transforming the historic 1951 Cemetery Maintenance Building at 798 E. Stone Avenue into Greenville’s first public memory lab, heritage storytelling center, and cultural lodging suite.
Located directly across from Richland Cemetery, one of Greenville’s oldest and most significant African American burial grounds (est. 1884), this project brings together:
heritage tourism
community storytelling
intergenerational memory work
immersive technology (VR/AR/Drone)
historic preservation
cultural lodging
youth + elder engagement
Bot’s Place will serve as a living memory hub, where community members, visitors, elders, and youth gather to learn, create, reflect, and preserve the stories of Richland Hill.
A unified umbrella for five immersive public experiences:
Witness Tree Trail™
Heroes of Greenville™
Roots @ Richland™ Geocache Adventure
Elder Message Station
Virtual Reality (VR)/ Augmented Reality (AR) Memory Gallery
Not a traditional Short-Term Rental (STR) — this is a mission-driven lodging experience serving:
heritage travelers
scholars
artists-in-residence
donors
retreat participants
cultural tourists
Offering free or grant-funded services to digitize memories, record elder stories, and help families preserve their heritage.
By combining STR income, heritage tours, partnerships, and SC Abandoned Building Tax Credits, Bot’s Place is designed to be financially resilient from year one.
To build a first-of-its-kind cultural site in Greenville where memory, history, nature, and technology converge — preserving the past while inspiring the next generation.
Bot’s Place will activate the Richland Hill Cultural Corridor through:
A heritagescape is an integrated cultural landscape that combines natural features, built structures, and community memory into a unified interpretive environment.
It includes both tangible elements (trees, landforms, pathways, architecture) and intangible heritage (oral histories, cultural practices, ancestral narratives).
Heritagescapes are evaluated not only for historical significance but for their ongoing role in shaping community identity, public memory, and intergenerational learning.
Richland Cemetery and the surrounding ridge, including the 1951 Cemetery Maintenance Building, collectively function as a heritagescape supporting cultural tourism, education, and preservation-based programming.
Bot’s Place will:
Preserve and amplify African American history in Greenville
Provide new cultural and economic vitality to the Stone Avenue corridor
Create intergenerational bridges between elders and youth
Establish a cultural tourism anchor on the northside
Support heritage, education, and the arts through a nonprofit model
Convert an abandoned building into a vibrant public asset
Serve thousands of visitors annually through tours, workshops, and lodging
5 experiences.
1 heritagescape.
∞ memories.
Providing ~$32,850/year in lodging income alone.
Digitization, storytelling, workshops, and digital archives.
Modern tools to bring historical landscapes to life.
Reducing capital costs by over $100,000.
Connecting cemetery, community, history, and public memory.
The building has been underutilized for decades.
Previous owners took no action.
Greenville is growing rapidly, and the importance of preserving African American heritage is rising.
Bot’s Place answers a pressing community need:
A place where memory, culture, and community can grow — together.
Richland Cemetery is Greenville’s earliest—and for decades, its principal—African American burial ground. It contains educators, midwives, community leaders, veterans, civil rights figures, and countless unnamed ancestors whose stories shaped the Black experience in Greenville.
This landscape is not only historic—it is active memory, still visited by descendants and still central to community identity.
Between Stone Avenue, Church Street, and the Fern Street gate, a unique cultural corridor emerged:
Richland Cemetery (1884) – sacred ground
Phyllis Wheatley Center connection (historic community hub)
Neighborhood ridge of Black families (20th century)
Public works labor routes (mid-century)
The 1951 building sits at the gateway to this corridor — closer to Richland Cemetery than any other remaining structure.
Greenville is modernizing rapidly, and many Black heritage sites risk being forgotten. Bot’s Place serves as:
a protector of memory,
a storytelling laboratory,
and a space for the community to reconnect with heritage.
Built circa 1951 by the City of Greenville as a public works support building, likely housing the largely African American cemetery maintenance crews who cared for Richland and Springwood Cemeteries.
This building is a material witness to:
mid-century segregation in municipal labor
Black stewardship of sacred spaces
overlooked histories of public service
the cultural ecology of Richland Hill
Its survival makes it one of the last intact working structures associated with the cemetery.
For decades:
underused
66%+ vacant
no income-producing operations
deteriorating envelope
This qualifies it for the South Carolina Abandoned Buildings Revitalization Act, providing major tax benefits.
The building will be reborn as:
Bot’s Place — a Memory Lab, Heritage Hub, and Cultural Lodging Site.
Bot’s Place houses the Richland Memories™ interpretive ecosystem, uniting all experiences under one identity:
5 experiences.
1 heritagescape.
∞ memories.
A guided or self-guided walking trail among “witness trees”—trees that have silently observed decades, sometimes a century, of African American history.
Interpretive elements include:
“This tree stood here when…” markers
ecological + cultural storytelling
QR-triggered AR overlays
Partners: Master Gardeners, Master Naturalists, Forestry experts
Theme : Nature lovers
An interpretive journey through notable ancestors buried at Richland Cemetery.
Focus:
educators
civil rights leaders
midwives
artisans
veterans
unsung community builders
Content delivery:
guided tours
audio storytelling
VR biographies
drone elevation context
Theme: Cultural curious + Historians
A youth- and family-engagement innovation.
Guests locate hidden geocaches containing:
ancestor quotes
historical facts
small symbolic tokens
kids’ activity clues
Theme: History as a treasure hunt.
At Bot’s Place, elders (80+ always free) may:
record 60-second introductions about their lives
leave messages for children
receive messages from youth visitors
receive laminated magnolia leaves as symbolic gifts
be honored on a digital “Elder Wall"
Kids leave drawings, audio messages, and VR “thank you” clips.
Messages are delivered safely via SMS link to elders.
Theme: Legacy Keepers & Story Seekers
A multi-sensory immersive lab featuring:
drone flyovers of Richland Cemetery
AR overlays showing historical scenes
VR biographical stories
360° walkthroughs of historical Greenville
“Memory Capsules” created by youth
Theme: Time-travelers wanted—this is history reimagined in VR.
The lodging suite above Bot’s Place is not a traditional STR.
It is a mission-designed cultural hospitality experience.
financial stability
donor engagement
lodging for scholars + artists
heritage tourism anchor
immersive site-based learning
Airbnb / VRBO baseline
Heritage travel direct bookings
Academic & cultural visitors
Artist-in-residence accommodations
Donor benefit nights
Retreat + workshop packages
Estimated annual STR revenue: $32,850
This STR becomes the economic foundation allowing:
Memory Lab operations
youth programming
elder support
maintenance of the historic building
match funding for grants
Bot’s Place becomes financially self-sustaining, not grant-dependent.
$125,000
$125,000
framing + insulation
electrical, plumbing, HVAC
windows + exterior
interior finishes
furnishings
safety + egress compliance
$25,000
VR/AR systems
drone video integration
elder message station
scanners, tablets
seating, lighting, signage
25% of eligible expenses
$275,000 × 25% = $68,750
Taken over 3 years
Assignable to investors, donors, or partners
Up to 75% reduction
For 8 years
Estimated savings: $36,000
This materially strengthens the project’s financial feasibility.
STR Income: $32,850/year
Program Income (tours, workshops): $13,860/year
Total Annual Revenue: $46,710
Operating Costs: ~$28,000
Property Tax Credit Savings: –$4,500
Adjusted Expenses: $23,500
≈ $23,210/year
Funds support:
youth programming
elder services
VR/AR experiences
Memory Lab workshops
building upkeep
Library provides:
equipment loans
technical training
staff-led workshops
Bot’s Place provides:
space
community access
programming pathways
improved grant competitiveness
expansion of library Memory Lab footprint
increased community trust
Includes:
free tours
free VR access
free recordings
laminated magnolia keepsake
geocache adventure
drawing table
elder message station
packaged tours
educational worksheets
curriculum-aligned content
collaboration with Mattoon Presbyterian
seasonal remembrance events
oral history projects
Virtual Reality (VR)
cemetery flythroughs
ancestor biographies
immersive portals
Augmented Reality (AR)
overlay historical homes no longer standing
tree-history overlays
interpretive markers
Drone Media
roof-to-ridge visuals
aerial context for stories
360° cemetery panoramas
finalize design
structural evaluation
tax credit filings
STR buildout
Memory Lab interior
tech installation
training
partnerships
pilot programming
Bot’s Place: Home of Richland Memories™ launches
Leatherwood Matters (Nonprofit)
Program Director
STR Operations Manager
Tour Guides
Volunteers
Librarian Partners
Youth Interns
Elders Council
Cultural Historians
Master Gardeners
Funding Sources
STR income
heritage tourism revenue
tax credits
grants (IMLS, NEH, Humanities SC)
corporate sponsorship
donor stays
library partnership
The STR lodging suite ensures long-term financial independence.
PART XV
APPENDICES
798 E. Stone Ave
TMS: 0039.02-01-018.00
Land Use: Commercial (Storebuilding)
MX-2 — Mixed Use
Allows lodging + community uses
1951 Public Works Atlas
1980 Greenville News archive
Historic Aerials (1955, 1971)
South Carolina Abandoned Buildings Revitalization Act
Bot’s Place: Home of Richland Memories™