Clark Park is a
municipal park
An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to resi ...
in the
Spruce Hill section of
West Philadelphia
West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Alhough there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the nort ...
in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. Its are bordered by 43rd and 45th streets, and by
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
and Woodland Avenues.
The park was established in 1895 on land donated to the city by banker and West Philadelphia developer
Clarence Howard Clark, and was known in its early decades as "Clarence H. Clark Park".
Today, the park has a basketball court, playground, an open field, and many paths. It holds a life-sized
1890 sculpture of
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
, one of just two known statues of the author.
It is home to the
Shakespeare in Clark Park theatre company.
The park also hosts Philadelphia's largest year-round
farmers' market
A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or o ...
, which runs once or twice a week, depending on the season.
History
19th century
During the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, a small portion of the land that would later become Clark Park was occupied by the southern tip of the 16-acre grounds of
Satterlee Hospital
Satterlee General Hospital was the largest Union Army hospital during the American Civil War. Operating from 1862 to 1865 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, its physicians and nurses rendered care to thousands of Union soldiers and Confederate prisone ...
, one of the largest
Union Army
During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...
hospitals.
Some 60,000 Union soldiers were treated at the medical facility, which was torn down after the war.
A prominent feature of the park is its "bowl", once a
mill pond
A mill pond (or millpond) is a body of water used as a reservoir for a water-powered mill.
Description
Mill ponds were often created through the construction of a mill dam or weir (and mill stream) across a waterway.
In many places, the com ...
that powered a paper mill and another mill to the south.
An
ice house sat near its southern tip. The pond was fed by
Mill Creek, which ran through a ravine between 42nd and 43rd Streets, was dammed above Woodland Avenue,
and emptied into the
Schuylkill River
The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river running northwest to southeast in eastern Pennsylvania. The river was improved by navigations into the Schuylkill Canal, and several of its tributaries drain major parts of Pennsylvania's Coal Region. It fl ...
.
The mills were closed in the 1860s.
As the area shifted from farmland to residential, over the next decades, the dam was removed, the creek was buried to make it easier to build houses, and the pond dried up.
In the 1890s, the land was used as a public dump.
In 1894, a proposal to take the land between 43rd and 44th streets and Baltimore and Chester Avenues for a municipal park was advanced to the City Council. Most of that land was owned by Clarence Howard Clark, a prominent banker and developer who lived a few blocks to the north. The city, which had laid out the streets surrounding the land, had issued a tax assessment of $16,925.25 ($ today) for the work. Clark proposed a deal: he would donate the land for use as a park, and the city would forgive the assessment.
Subsequently, a proposed ordinance was sent on April 19, by the council to the Committee on Municipal Government, which on May 10 recommended its passage in this form:
The ordinance was passed on June 8, 1894, and the deal was done. In Clark's deed, he restricted the land to be used solely as a park, and he said that he wanted the park dedicated to children.
The first portion of the park was dedicated on January 18, 1895.
In November 1898, the area south of Chester Avenue was added, giving the park today's 9.1-acre form.
''Dickens and Little Nell''
The Dickens sculpture, by New York City sculptor
Francis Edwin Elwell
Francis Edwin Elwell (also cited as Frank Edwin Elwell) (June 15, 1858, Concord, Massachusetts – January 23, 1922, Darien, Connecticut) was an American sculptor, teacher, and author.
He lectured on art at Harvard University, and taught modelin ...
, shows the 19th-century author and one of his characters, Nell Trent of the novel ''
The Old Curiosity Shop
''The Old Curiosity Shop'' is one of two novels (the other being ''Barnaby Rudge'') which Charles Dickens published along with short stories in his weekly serial ''Master Humphrey's Clock'', from 1840 to 1841. It was so popular that New York r ...
''. The work was commissioned in 1890 by
Stilson Hutchins
Stilson Hutchins (November 14, 1838 – April 23, 1912) was an American newspaper reporter and publisher, best known as founder of the broadsheet newspaper ''The Washington Post''. Hutchins was also a Southern sympathizer and an outspoken racist ...
, who soon pulled out of the deal. Elwell nevertheless finished the sculpture, which won a gold medal in 1891 from the
Art Club of Philadelphia
The Art Club of Philadelphia, often called the Philadelphia Art Club, was a club in Philadelphia, founded on February 7, 1887, to advance the arts. and two gold medals at the 1893
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordi ...
. In 1896, the
Fairmount Park Art Association
Established in 1872 in Philadelphia, the Association for Public Art (formerly Fairmount Park Art Association) is the United States' first private, nonprofit public art organization dedicated to integrating public art and urban planning. The Assoc ...
(FPAA) bought the sculpture for $7,500 ($ today); it was placed in Clark Park the following year. By 1908, the association was receiving, and rebuffing, requests to move it to a more prominent place in the city.
It was vandalized in November 1989, but restored.
20th century
On May 16, 1907, the city council of Philadelphia approved an ordinance "to place the care and maintenance of Kingsessing avenue between Forty-third and Forty-fifth streets in the Bureau of City Property" and lay it out as a
macadam
Macadam is a type of road construction, pioneered by Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam around 1820, in which crushed stone is placed in shallow, convex layers and compacted thoroughly. A binding layer of stone dust (crushed stone from the o ...
-topped "Park Drive."
(This section of Kingsessing Avenue is today a stub road into the park and functions as a parking lot just south of the basketball court.)
In 1915, D. A. Conan, of 1345 Arch St., won a $5,000 contract to lay 3,000 yards of
granolithic
Granolithic screed, also known as granolithic pavingEmmitt and Gorse, p. 566. and granolithic concrete,Harris, p. 470. is a type of construction material composed of cement and fine aggregate such as granite or other hard-wearing rock.Ingham, p. 1 ...
walkways in the park.
In June 1916, a large stone from
Devil's Den
Devil's Den is a boulder-strewn hill on the south end of Houck's Ridge at Gettysburg Battlefield, used by artillery and sharpshooters on the second day of the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. A tourist attraction since ...
at
Gettysburg Battlefield
The Gettysburg Battlefield is the area of the July 1–3, 1863, military engagements of the Battle of Gettysburg within and around the borough of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Locations of military engagements extend from the site of the first shot ...
was set up in the park to recall the Union soldiers treated on the site and the "services of the patriotic men and women" who cared for them.
The stone sits near the park's northwestern corner, which was once the southern tip of the hospital grounds.
Around 1925, the first sub-station for the
municipal fire alarm system was set up in Clark Park, allowing calls for service to be routed to local West Philadelphia fire stations instead of passing through the central station in
City Hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
downtown.
The park seems to have been the venue for a long-running
Independence Day
An independence day is an annual event commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or more rarely after the end of a military occupation. Man ...
fireworks show; in 1937, for example, the "27th annual display of the
Kingsessing
Kingsessing is a neighborhood in the Southwest section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. On the west side of the Schuylkill River, it is next to the neighborhoods of Cedar Park, Southwest Schuylkill, and Mount Moriah, as well as the ...
Safe and Sane Fourth of July Association lasted an hour and 10 minutes".
In 1947, nearby residents complained to city officials about a stagnant pool of water that had gathered in the bowl of Clark Park and become fetid over the course of four months. A city official conceded that the situation was "deplorable" but said nothing could be done because the city lacked money to fill in the hole. Still, Eagles star running back
Steve Van Buren
Stephen Wood Van Buren (December 28, 1920 − August 23, 2012) was a Honduran–American professional football player who was a halfback for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL) from 1944 to 1951. Regarded as a powerf ...
continued to take weekly walks with his dog there.
In 1950, the park hosted the neighborhood's qualification round of the annual Metropolitan Philadelphia
Marbles
A marble is a small spherical object often made from glass, clay, steel, plastic, or agate. They vary in size, and most commonly are about in diameter. These toys can be used for a variety of games called ''marbles'', as well being placed in mar ...
Tournament, which attracted a record 9,148 boys and girls.
In June 1961, the city spent $40,000 ($ today) on park improvements, adding a basketball court, shuffleboard court, checker tables, a tot-lot, two drinking fountains and general landscaping.
The Friends of Clark Park (FOCP), a nonprofit volunteer organization, was founded in 1973 to help maintain the park. Yet the 1970s and '80s saw park maintenance steadily decline; no major capital projects were completed except for normal repairs and the installation of playground equipment in the early 1980s.
In November 1989, the figure of Little Nell was torn from its pedestal and thrown face-down by vandals. FOCP raised money to do the repairs, which were overseen by the Fairmount Park Art Association, and requested additional lighting to illuminate the sculpture.
By 1998, "Trash and broken glass surrounded the Dickens statue and littered the park. More than once, the neighbors fought the city just to get the grass cut. Lacking lights, the park was off-limits after dusk except to drug dealers and their prey," wrote
Judith Rodin
Judith Rodin (born Judith Seitz, September 9, 1944) is a philanthropist with a long history in U.S. higher education. She was the president of the Rockefeller Foundation from 2005 until 2017. From 1994 to 2004, Rodin served as the 7th permanent p ...
, the president of the nearby
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
, which was heavily involved in gentrification efforts in the neighborhood.
That same year, regional farmers began offering produce and other products at the Clark Park Farmers' Market.
21st century
In 2000, FOCP, the Recreation department, and the non-profit
University City District
University City is the easternmost portion of West Philadelphia, encompassing several Philadelphia universities. It is situated directly across the Schuylkill River from Center City.
The University of Pennsylvania was instrumental in coining t ...
organization agreed to raise private maintenance funds to supplement municipal efforts. The agreement launched an annual “Party for the Park” fundraiser, which helps underwrite the cost of
landscape maintenance
Landscape maintenance (or groundskeeping) is the art and vocation of keeping a landscape healthy, clean, safe and attractive, typically in a garden, yard, park, institutional setting or estate. Using tools, supplies, knowledge, physical exerti ...
and fund a small, but growing maintenance endowment. Between 2000 and 2006, the trio raised more than $300,000.
The partners sought and received $55,000
from the
William Penn Foundation
The William Penn Foundation is a grant-making foundation established in 1945 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by businessman Otto Haas and his wife Phoebe, and initially called the Phoebe Waterman Foundation.
It strives to improve "the quality of ...
to develop a master plan for Clark Park, which was delivered in 2001 after a nine-month effort by community-based steering committee and landscape architects. Among its fruits: a comprehensive assessment of the park's 305 trees by the
Morris Arboretum
The Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania (37 ha / 92 acres) is the official arboretum of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Arboretum is open daily except for major holidays. It is located at 100 East Northwestern Avenue, Chestnut ...
; two new playgrounds, one of which was built with private
funds; and plans to rebuild the basketball court. The master plan also calls for a central plaza where chess players now gather around the flagpole, improvements to the Dickens and Gettysburg Stone areas, and sidewalk and lighting renovations. The plan envisions replacing the parking lot next to the basketball court with green space for the
University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (University of the Sciences or USciences) was a private university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. USciences offered bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in pharmacy and other health-related dis ...
, which leases the space and the adjacent Rosenberger Hall.
Major renovations to the northern section of the park, dubbed Park A, began on September 7, 2010: improvements to lighting, green areas, paved paths, and drainage. The work was slated to finish in November;
it was actually completed on June 16, 2011.
Park events
The farmers’ market operates at 43rd Street and Baltimore, offering produce and other products from regional farms once or twice a week. From May through November, the market is open on Thursdays (3 to 7 p.m.) and Saturdays (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.); the rest of the year, on Saturdays (10 a.m. to 1 p.m.). The market is run by a pair of non-profit organizations
The Food Trustan
University City District Since 2008, the vendors have been equipped with wireless
Electronic Benefit Transfer devices set up by the
U.S. Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...
that allow customers to pay with credit and debit cards and food stamps.
On February 7, fans of Charles Dickens, led by the Philadelphia branch of the
Dickens Fellowship
The Dickens Fellowship was founded in 1902, and is an international association of people from all walks of life who share an interest in the life and works of Victorian era novelist Charles Dickens.
The Dickens Fellowship's head office is based ...
and Friends of Clark Park, meet at the statue to celebrate the writer's birthday.
Gallery
Image:Philadelphia Orchestra in Clark Park.jpg, Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscription ...
See also
*
List of parks in Philadelphia
Philadelphia has a total parklandincluding city parks, squares, playgrounds, athletic fields, recreation centers and golf courses, plus state and federal parksthat amounts to . The Fairmount Park system historically encompassed 63 park areas pri ...
*
University City
*
USIP
References
External links
Friends of Clark Park a non-profit corporation and volunteer organization founded in 1973 to help maintain and improve the neighborhood's largest public green space.
Historic Photographs of Clark Parkat PhillyHistory.org
Clark Park Farmers' Market"A LARP In The Park: Swordsmen and sorcery in West Philadelphia" 34th Street magazine, March 25, 2010. Article about
LARP
A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters.(Tychsen et al. 2006:255) "LARPs can be viewed as forming a distinct category of RPG because of two unique feature ...
ing at Clark Park.
''University and Urban Revival'' by Judith Rodin, University of Pennsylvania (2007), pp. 72-76"> ''University and Urban Revival'' by Judith Rodin, University of Pennsylvania (2007), pp. 72-76 Describes efforts by UCD and FOCP to revive the park.
1912 photo of Dickens statueshowing all young trees in Clark Park.
Historical maps
1843 map showing dammed Mill Creek and mill pond on future parkland1872 map showing course of Mill Creek through future parkland1892 map showing future parkland owned by Clarence H. Clark1909 map showing Clarence H. Clark Park and its paths
{{Philadelphia parks
Municipal parks in Philadelphia
National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia
Spruce Hill, Philadelphia
Historic district contributing properties in Pennsylvania
West Philadelphia
1895 establishments in Pennsylvania