Standin' on the Corner Park is a public park in

Winslow, Arizona Winslow ( nv, ) is a city in Navajo County, Arizona, Navajo County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the population of the city is 9,655. It is approximately southeast of Flagstaff, Arizona, Flag ...

, opened in 1999, commemorating the song "

Take It Easy "Take It Easy" is the debut single by the American rock band Eagles, written by Jackson Browne and Eagles band member Glenn Frey, who also provides lead vocals. It was released on May 1, 1972, and peaked at No. 12 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 1 ...

" which was written by

Jackson Browne Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 18 million albums in the United States. Emerging as a precocious teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he h ...

and

Glenn Frey Glenn Lewis Frey (; November 6, 1948 – January 18, 2016) was an American singer, guitarist and a founding member of the rock band Eagles. Frey was the co-lead singer and frontman for the Eagles, roles he came to share with fellow member Don H ...

and most famously recorded by the

Eagles Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, jus ...

. The song includes the verse "''Well, I'm a-standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona and such a fine sight to see. It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford slowin' down to take a look at me.''" The park contains a two-story

trompe-l'œil ''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...

mural by

John Pugh John David Pugh (born 28 June 1948, Liverpool) is a Liberal Democrat politician in the United Kingdom. He was the Member of Parliament for Southport from 2001 to 2017. He stood down at the 2017 snap election. In November 2017, he was elected ...

, a Ford

flatbed truck A flatbed truck (or flatbed lorry in British English) is a type of truck which can be either articulated or rigid. As the name suggests, its bodywork is just an entirely flat, level 'bed' with no sides or roof. This allows for quick and easy loa ...

, and a bronze statue by Ron Adamson of Frey who is standing on a corner with a guitar by his side. The park is surrounded by a wall of bricks, with windows to peer into; each brick has a

donor A donor in general is a person, organization or government which donates something voluntarily. The term is usually used to represent a form of pure altruism, but is sometimes used when the payment for a service is recognized by all parties as rep ...

's name on it, and a story by each of the donors describing their fondness for Winslow, Arizona. Arizona US 66 Standing on the Corner Park Winslow Arizona

Arizona US 66 Standing on the Corner Park Winslow Arizona

History

Until the 1970s, Winslow was a thriving town in northern Arizona just off Route 66. When

I-40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...

bypassed the community many local businesses disappeared, the tourism sector being among the hardest hit. While some local jobs remained (Winslow is the base of operation for nearly 1,000 railroad workers), the local downtown was badly hurt by the influx of national chains such as

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

and

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

along the new interstate highway to the north of the town. Twenty years passed and Winslow was stuck in a commercial rut. The Standin' on the Corner Foundation was formed to create a renaissance of Winslow. Determined to build on tourism, the foundation took advantage of the town being mentioned in the song "Take It Easy" made famous by the Eagles. From 1997 until 1999, the foundation sought out donors and planned design concepts. On September 10 and 11, 1999 the park was opened to the public. On October 18, 2004, there was a fire at the Standin' on the Corner Park. While the face of the building and the actual corner survived, the rest of the building was burned down. The 2006 release of

animated film Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

Cars A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, people in ...

'' brought renewed attention to the efforts to save local U.S. Route 66 main street businesses in towns long bypassed. In September 2016, a statue was unveiled at the park in the likeness of Glenn Frey, who died earlier that year.

References

External links

Official site
{{Coord, 35.0235, -110.6981, display=title Parks in Arizona Parks in Navajo County, Arizona Tourist attractions along U.S. Route 66 U.S. Route 66 in Arizona Winslow, Arizona 1999 establishments in Arizona Eagles (band)