The Pike Memory Map project is now over! Thank you to all the neighbors of Columbia Pike who shared their memories.

What was this about?

The Pike Memory Map was a giant map that appeared at the Columbia Pike Farmer’s Market in Virginia through summer and fall 2025. Residents added their favorite memories of their neighborhoods to a digitally- and physically-interactive map of Columbia Pike.

What’s Columbia Pike?

Columbia Pike is a 3.5-mile-long corridor that has connected the outlying areas of Virginia to DC since 1810. It is one of the oldest and busiest commuter thoroughfares in the area.

With that in mind, it’s easy to assume the character of the Pike is only transitory: never a place to stop, but simply one to pass through on the way into the capital.

But what if you knew exactly what this place meant to the people that did stop? What if we could each see where the memories of 40 thousand residents were impressed on the Pike? Where were the places they were happiest, most inspired, most contemplative, most drawn to? What gets overlooked on the road to Rome?

The Memory Map was hatched to give locals a new way of seeing the Pike’s unique character.

The map asked Pike residents two questions:

Where in Columbia Pike would you take a new neighbor or visitor first?

Where and what is your favorite memory in Columbia Pike?

As residents pinned their answers on to the Memory Map, the digital map revealed patterns in the form of heat maps and salient themes.

Interesting questions appear when we use shared memories to orient ourselves.

What surprises are revealed in the character of our communities? How might shared memories affect how we invest in and appreciate our common places? What sort of landmarks might yield new meaning? What invisible things are made visible only through a map?

This project was a collaboration between the Columbia Pike Partnership and Lost Pilgrim. To learn more about the Pike, please visit: https://www.columbia-pike.org

P. S. The Pike has a beating heart for those who linger : see also the (unaffiliated) Columbia Pike Documentary Project.