Cedar Street Recreation Center

Built in 1948 on the corner of Bern and Cedar Streets in New Bern's Dryborough neighborhood, this concrete block gymnasium was the city's first recreation center for African American youth. At the time, the city's other recreation centers were reserved for white residents. The New Bern Civic League organized the project, and students sold concrete blocks at five cents each to raise money. Local high school brickmasonry students and World War II veterans did the construction work. The walls went up first, and for about two years the unfinished building had no roof or floor, yet it was used for basketball games and meetings. After the League deeded the property to the city in 1951, New Bern added the roof, wood floor and a front wing in 1952. The center hosted high school basketball, a kindergarten and civic meetings, and basketball star Walter Bellamy began playing there in the 1950s. After it stopped serving as a gymnasium in the 1970s, it became a venue for dances, concerts and banquets. It was later renamed the Jasper G. Hayes Omega Center.