One of Pullman’s most historic neighborhoods will be recognized this spring with student-designed signs marking what is now known as The North College Hill Historic District.

The section of Pullman’s College Hill neighborhood has been on the National Register of Historic Places since November 2006. Metal signs to mark the designated area were designed last spring in a class at WSU.

The signs are now in production and will be installed by the city at five to-be-determined entry locations around the area this March, said Allison Munch-Rotolo, co-chair of the College Hill Association.

The boundaries of the Historic District lie between Stadium Way, Indiana and Howard Streets. “B” Street borders the eastern edge of the district, which consists of about 101 residences total, Munch-Rotolo said.

The Historic District marker was designed by a group of four students in a composition and design class last spring, taught by English assistant professor, Kristin Arola.

The idea to design the signs was originally presented to the class by WSU’s Center for Civic Engagement, Arola said. The class collaborated throughout the semester with Munch-Rotolo to design an appropriate sign for the historic neighborhood.

“I like that it was for the College Hill Association because it gave the students a better sense of the history and architecture of College Hill, which is interesting in a design class,” Arola said.

Requirements for the students’ markers included a simple, easy to read design to be painted on a metal street sign, graduate student Lauren Clark said. She was one of the sign’s main designers.

“I was pretty much the one who volunteered to make all the changes for the College Hill Association,” she said.

After the composition and design class ended last year, Clark stayed in close contact with the project’s main adviser, Munch-Rotolo, and worked with her to redesign certain elements of the sign.

“Working on the project was really important to me. I am so excited that something I had worked so hard on is going up in Pullman. It was really worth it and I can’t wait until they are up,” Clark said.

Many of the former residents of College Hill were faculty and administrators at WSU. Most of the homes date from the late nineteenth century to the 1940s and have retained their historical construction and integrity, said Robert McCoy, assistant professor of history at WSU.

McCoy played a major role in overseeing and writing the historic area’s nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.

“As a public historian, helping individuals figure out how their communities fit into broader currents of history gives them a sense of place, importance and identity and that is what College Hill is all about,” he said.

McCoy also hopes the signs will bring more recognition to the area as it is traveled by students, visitors and community members.

“The signs will show community pride and that the university has a larger impact on the community and vice versa; more than people think,” he said.

Munch-Rotolo said she hopes a historic district will help Pullman residents feel more pride in the community and to think of the homes as not just “old,” but historic.