Small clusters of people are gathered at the corner of Burnett and Fifth Streets, joking and talking while they wait for someone to pull a white cloth from a brick pier.

What’s hidden behind the cloth is so important that when the people realize nobody remembered a camera, Vice President of Student Affairs Thomas Hill runs to Fareway to buy one.

It is the unveiling of the Nancy and Archie Martin Pier.

“I think that all of us are coming to realize that Archie and Nancy Martin are forerunners of our destiny to have such a diverse city,” Mayor Ted Tedesco said at the beginning of the ceremony. “They were people before their time.”

The Martins boarded black students during the years Iowa State would educate, but not house, black students. Iowa State did not integrate its dorms until some time around the late 1940s.

The Martins rented out their three upstairs bedrooms to black students. Nell Shipp, one of their daughters, also opened her home. Altogether, the Martins and Shipps housed 20 black students.

Hill said the Martins’ actions impact how outsiders look at the city.

“The longer I’m here, the more impressed I am with this community,” he said. “Long before it was fashionable, long before it was popular, Ames was doing something like this.”

Karen Garrison, one of the Martins’ granddaughters, represented her family at the ceremony.

“We’re honored that this was done for our grandparents,” she said. “They would feel quite humble and be happy this was being done for them.”

A street corner pier was built in the Martins’ honor thanks to the efforts of Ellen Hadwiger and other Ames residents.

Two years ago, Hadwiger was walking downtown with her son when she realized none of Ames’ street corner piers represented the Martins.

Hadwiger’s determination to honor the Martins resulted in the Archie A. and Nancy C. Martin Foundation, a group of Ames residents who raised $9,000 of the $12,500 needed to build it. The Ames City Council voted unanimously to contribute the remaining funds.

“It’s really been a wonderful project,” said Joanna Courteau, president of the Martin Foundation. “It’s brought people together.”

The foundation’s next goal is to place the Martin house, 218 Lincoln Way, on the historical register, Courteau said. A member of the Martin family currently owns it, but if he wants to sell it, the foundation hopes to turn it into an African-American museum.

Joyce Samuels is coordinating the historical preservation effort, and she expects that achieving this will take time and effort.

She said she doesn’t think it will be difficult to accomplish the first step, registering it with the city, however.

“I think it is such an asset to the community,” she said.