Norwich – An idea that first surfaced during the city’s 350th anniversary celebration in 2009 and gained momentum last fall to create a public park and city recognition for African American artist Ellis Ruley appears to be getting off the ground.

The City Council on Monday introduced a resolution to recognize a three-member committee that has been meeting since January to work on the effort to turn the city-owned former Ruley home property at 28 Hammond Ave. into a public park. Shiela Hayes, Frank Manfredi and Lottie Scott are the current members of the Ellis Walter Ruley Committee.

Because the project would involve city-owned land – the city took the property for back taxes and utility bills in 1988 – the City Council first had to refer the resolution to the Commission on the City Plan for a recommendation and will vote on it at an upcoming meeting.

The project would include placing a plaque at the site of the house foundation and creating walking trails through the 2.9-acre property for “tourists, residents and aspiring artists to visit.” On a broader scope, a self-guided tour of Norwich sites significant to Ruley’s artwork – including Slater Memorial Museum at Norwich Free Academy, where he sold works for small amounts, Mohegan Park and Uncas Leap, City Hall and Maplewood Cemetery, where he is buried.

Ruley, a  self taught African American artist, lived his entire life in Norwich, but died Jan. 16, 1959 under mysterious circumstances. His body was found at the bottom of his long driveway in the road. Eleven years earlier, Ruley’s son-in-law, Douglas Harris, died on the property in even more suspicious circumstance. His body was found Nov. 20, 1948 head first in a narrow, shallow well on the property. Without an autopsy, Harris’ death was ruled accidental drowning.

Both deaths and Ruley’s posthumous fame as an artist were in the limelight last fall, when documentary filmmaker Glenn Palmedo-Smith brought forensic expert Dr. Michael Baden and organized the exhumation, autopsies of both men and reburial ceremony – with new donated headstones, coffins and vaults.

Initial results of the autopsies were inconclusive on Ruley, but cast doubts on Harris’ official cause of death.

Palmedo-Smith is working on a documentary set to air during Black History Month in February 2016 on the Ruley legacy.

Palmedo-Smith donated a bust of Ruley to the Slater Museum, and Hayes hopes the bust can be placed on display at Norwich City Hall for a time as part of an Ellis Ruley tour.

Committee member Manfredi, who helped coordinate the October 2014 exhumation and reburial, said Palmedo-Smith suggested the Ruley property be turned into a public park. Hayes and Scott have had the same dream since 2009 and had hoped to incorporate recognition of Ruley’s Norwich roots into the city’s 350th anniversary celebration.

“I was introduced to this then,” Hayes said. “We couldn’t get this component in place, so for Lottie and myself, getting this project off the ground is a major accomplishment.”

Manfredi estimated the committee would need between $5,000 and $10,000 to create the park and the memorial plaque for the property. The land would still be owned by the city, but the committee will seek volunteer groups, including Rotary, Boy and Girl Scouts and other civic groups to help clean the property and create trails and to maintain the park in the future.

“On behalf of the eldest Ruley family members, the possibility of a historical landmark on Ruley's property and a bust statue of Ellis Ruley at City Hall is an exciting prospect indeed,” Palmedo-Smith said in an email statement on the park project. “I can further see in the very near future, Ellis Ruley Month occurring every summer, generating untold visitors to the area to learn more about Ellis Ruley.”

c.bessette@theday.com

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