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In the early 1900s, there were 128 trees in Dickinson Square Park, which spans Fourth Street to Moyamensing Avenue and Tasker to Morris streets. Today, there are 58 in the Pennsport green space that was once Pascal Iron Works, a foundry demolished in the late 1800s to make way for the park that opened in 1898.
Twenty-eight of the 58 trees were planted last spring by the Friends of Dickinson Square Park, a community-based volunteer effort formed in 2006 to focus on park improvement. "We are actively, on an ongoing basis, planting new trees. We’d love to get it back to the number it used to be. It really creates such a wonderful atmosphere," Ashley Tobin, resident and Friend of the park, said.
But planting trees is only the beginning. The Friends’ board in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) and the Community Design Collaborative (CDC) unveiled a formal, five-year improvement plan for the park at a meeting last Thursday.
More than 60 people, including state Rep. Bill Keller, came out at 7 p.m. to the park’s Parsons Building to join the Friends and members of PHS, CDC and the Department of Recreation, the latter of whom runs the park. "This is what we need in the city. We need more green spaces. The city is laid out with these parks all over, but we need people like [the Friends] to volunteer to bring it back to where it should be and I’m here to help support them do this," the state representative, who lives near and uses the park, said.
In development for more than a year, the comprehensive plan includes recommendations Friends sought from the CDC, a Center City-based group of landscape architects and planners who volunteer on beautification projects in the city. The organization requested assistance from the CDC in order to develop the plan that entails structural and cosmetic improvements. CDC was asked to look at specific features within the park including lighting, horticulture, seating, location of play equipment, Parsons Building improvements and adding a dog walk at the corner of Fourth and Morris.
The plan is proposed in three phases at a cost of about $800,000, the bulk of which will be footed by donations, Tobin said. Before anything can begin, funds must be raised so Friends is presently in talks with local politicians for support and also is planning clean-up fundraisers and other money-makers.
The project was enthusiastically received by many locals in attendance last week. Chris Walker, who lives at Second Street and Morris with wife Maria and their little Welsh terrier, thinks it’s "wonderful" because everybody in the neighborhood uses the space to walk their dog, stroll, relax or play. When the couple’s children were little, they would take them to the playground and basketball court.
"Everybody is always in the park. You get all types of people. It’s nice," he said.
The seeds of the project were sown with an application earlier last spring to PHS’s Philadelphia Green, an arm of the organization that works with parks and neighborhood groups, Friends board President Ron Cohen told the Review.
Cohen, whose bedroom window overlooks the park, has lived in the immediate vicinity for decades, having raised three children there. Like Cohen, everyone on the seven-member board lives within two to three blocks of the park and some have lived in the neighborhood for more than 20 years and their kids grew up here, Tobin said.
Friends reached out to PHS and applied for help with their project, knowing the organization has branches that deal with community groups. The application process included an introductory letter then outlined what the group does and its vision for the green space. About 19 historical and contemporary photos culled from city archives also were sent along, showing what the space looked like.
"The goal was to enhance the park," Cohen said of why Friends applied. "The tree canopy in South Philly is three percent [of the entire area land mass]. It’s very, very low, maybe the lowest in the city."
Three divisions fall under PHS’s Philadelphia Green program: vacant lands, community gardens and park revitalization, explained Philadelphia Green’s Tammy Leigh DeMent. Park revitalization works with about 11 city parks, of which Dickinson recently became one through its application process. PHS selected Dickinson because it was impressed with the Friends’ motivation, DeMent said.
"Dickinson Square has a vision to renovate their park on a master scale. This is a really great park group. They’re really strong. They’ve done a lot of really hard work and it’s showing. PHS is looking forward to working with them well into the future," DeMent said.
Partial funding for the project is provided through PHS, who is doing about $15,000 worth of work for $500, according to Cohen. "A nonprofit in the city can get [$15,000 of work] for $500. We paid through one of our park grants. We were able to use that money to do this because what it does is keep the ball rolling in terms of getting things done in the park," the board president said.
PHS is using grant money already in its coffers from the William Penn Foundation and Philadelphia’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, DeMent said.
Focused on park improvement, Friends meets weekly to rake leaves, remove litter and fallen tree limbs and tend one of South Philly’s many parks. Area residents also give their time to aid the effort. To get the site ready for its facelift, the first seasonal cleanup took place March 15.
"PHS, through it’s Philly Green project, really galvanized this group and really got everyone energized about having a group of people who were all interested in the same thing," Tobin said of residents’ efforts to transform the park.
Work has already begun. Last spring saw 28 trees planted and more are scheduled in the coming months.
As part of the project, Parsons Building has undergone a major transformation with more work on the horizon. In January, Friends repainted the entire space and cleaned it top to bottom. An old water fountain with "all sorts of strange things living in it" was removed and water shut off for safety, Tobin said. The rat- and bug-infested kitchen — a space the size of a closet — also was cleaned out. The Department of Rec building that dates back to the ’50s housed a 4th District police substation in the ’90s. When that shut down, the space became a storage unit with an accumulation of odds and ends. New windows, a ceiling and changes to the worn facade, including ivy on its exterior walls, are some of the refurbishments on deck for Parsons as part of the project, Cohen said.
Walker believes once the entire plan is carried out, Dickinson Square Park could be a world-class space.
"This is a great neighborhood. Look at these two blocks," he said gesturing toward brownstones lining Tasker and Fourth. "I mean they are great houses. This could be a showcase park."
To contact Staff Writer Lorraine Gennaro, e-mail lgennaro@southphillyreview.com or call ext. 124.
