News-Record.com

At least the state kept its promise and returned the sign.

What happened after that can be blamed on that old excuse: what we have here is a failure to communicate.

At issue is the state highway historical marker comemorating Immanuel Lutheran College, an unusual institution that stood along East Market Street for 56 years. Founded in Concord in 1903, the school moved here in 1905. Until it closed in 1961,it was a high school, junior college and seminary run by white German Lutherans for black American students.

The campus, with a magnificent stone main building, stood on the north side of East Market Street, where Metropolitan United Methodist Church and the N.C. A&T State University tennis courts are now located.

After Lutheran closed, A&T absorbed a big chunk of the the campus. Most of the building were torn down.

The commerorative marker went up in the mid 1970s, with a dedication ceremony along East Market. The church lawn behind and to the sides made the marker stand out. People in cars could easily see it.

A few years ago, state and local governments began redesigning and beautifying East Market. The sign was taken down and stored. The state promised the small, but focul Immanuel Lutheran alumni group the marker would return as soon as the road work was done.

The state kept it's promise. But, darn it, they put the marker in the wrong place. It's implanted across the street in the next block to the west.

When Emanuel Lutheran alum Yolanda Leacraft heard of the marker's return, she went to take a look.

"I had a hard time finding it," she says. "I had to drive up and down the street three times."

Even though the sign remains near the campus site, Leacraft worries it blends in with the student apartments in the background. Also, nearby trees, once the cleaves return, will make the marker hard to see.

Leacraft plans to ask the state to uproot the sign and move it to the original site.

Mike Hill, who directs the state's historical marker program, says he'll call the highway maintenance people, in charge of putting up the signs, and ask that it be moved.

"It was put back up," he says, "without any communication from us."