The city of Mobile will hold a public meeting April 6 in Africatown to start gathering input about the design of a planned Africatown Welcome Center.

The meeting was announced Thursday by the city. According to the announcement, Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson and Councilman William Carroll will attend the meeting, which will be held from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Robert Hope Community Center, at 850 Edwards St.

According to Thursday’s announcement, the meeting is part of design contract work led by engineering and management company Mott MacDonald. “It will be the first of many opportunities for members of the Africatown community and other Mobilians to provide input on the design of the Africatown Welcome Center,” says the city news release. “This initial public meeting on April 6 will be focused on broad design concepts, such as form, flow, architecture and environment. Consultants will be on hand to demonstrate various concepts and options and take feedback from the public about what the Africatown Welcome Center should look and feel like. City leaders and the design team will hold a brief presentation before shifting to an open-house format.”

As far back as 2018, a new Africatown Welcome Center was approved for $3.58 million in funds by the Alabama Gulf Coast Recovery Council. The Council is one of the bodies responsible for allocating funds collected as penalties from companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon Disaster under the RESTORE Act.

The structure for approval of such projects is complex and involves extensive interaction between state, local and federal entities, so progress has been slow. Africatown has been without a Welcome Center since Hurricane Katrina damaged the old one in 2005.

That lack of a point of entry for visitors has become more and more conspicuous as events have made Africatown the subject of greater national and international interest. The wreckage of the slave ship Clotilda was confirmed found in 2019, and the award-winning documentary “Descendant,” released in 2022, broadened awareness that the survivors of the ship’s final voyage founded a unique community near Mobile.

A smaller Heritage House museum is expected to open this summer after delays. But the Welcome Center, with the city contributing to a total budget of about $6 million, will be bigger and will be built specifically to introduce visitors to the community. The city says it will “serve as a central hub for future historical and cultural tourism sites that will help share the story of Africatown.”

Thursday’s announcement does not lay out a timeline for other meetings in the design process. It says that as the design work continues, “Mott MacDonald and its sub-consultants will create design alternatives based on the community’s input.”

For more information on the project, email [email protected]. For regular updates on the process, text MOBILEAFRICATOWNWC to 91896.