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Pedestrian Traffic Turtle Park
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Capitol Hill’s small city parks and gardens provide residents with unending opportunities to enjoy green. City sources say there are more than 59 inner-city triangles and squares in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. When Pierre L’Enfant designed the area over 200 years ago, he placed Capitol Hill as the center of the city. Public squares and parks were evenly placed at the major intersections. Who would have guessed that L’Enfant would be the father of the 21st-century pocket parks?
Not as large as the square parks, like Lincoln, Stanton, Marion and Folger parks, these scattered bits of green are often found in the triangle spaces between the convergences of streets. The triangle parks for the most part are owned by the city, many conveyed to the District by the National Park Service over the past few years. DC’s Department of Parks and Recreation is responsible for the management of these tiny parks.
With budget cuts hampering the Department of Parks and Recreation, we are indeed lucky that many of Capitol Hill’s ardent gardeners have adopted these triangle parks. Most of the gardeners are neighbors who live adjacent to or in the same block as the park. The styles of these parks vary from urban forests to flower gardens to children’s playgrounds. All bring environmental and economic benefits to our Hill neighborhood.
Turtle Park
Everyone agrees that Muriel Martin-Wein is the godmother of Capitol Hill’s pocket parks. For over a decade, she and her band of volunteers have cared for the island of green between Independence and North Carolina avenues SE, immediately across from Eastern Market. It may be one of the heaviest used pocket parks on the Hill. Yet, the green grass, tall trees filled with birdhouses and cement turtles on which generations of children have climbed, still provides an urban oasis at one of the Hill’s busiest intersections.
“I am happy that the baby turtles were finally restored through the generosity of the Capitol Hill Community Foundation and private funds raised through the ‘Friends’ non-profit groups,” says Muriel. “It is also nice to see new volunteers like Charlie Hurt, Jim Hichey, John Risse and, of course, the baby turtles’ creator, John Giesecke, continue to be involved in the park.” In 2009, the Capitol Hill Community Foundation granted $750 for cushioning materials to be placed near the turtle playground to soften the impact on little hands and knees.
A Flowering Corner – Providence Triangle Park
On the southeast side of the Hill, at the tip of North Carolina Avenue and E Street SE, is an island of flowers that greets residents as they drive or walk up from the busy South Capitol Street. This pocket park has the feel of an English garden. Two years ago, Donna Barbisch and her neighbors began the paperwork with the city to create a flowering garden on the site. Large trees and grass occupy the back portion of the park, which is often used by neighbors for small picnics or an afternoon in the sun. But the tip of the park had been pretty bare for a long time.
“We aren’t very structured in our assignments. If you like to weed, then you come by and do that. If you are more the type that will help plant the spring bulbs, then we rely on you to help get those planted. We have an e-mail list that keeps everyone apprised about the volunteer needs,” Donna continued. The funds for the garden come from contributions made through the nonprofit Friends of Garfield Park. As Donna reports, the pocket park “has received grants from the Capitol Hill Community Foundation and the American Trucking Association. In addition, Frager’s Hardware is very generous in helping us with discounts for our plants.” Following a city-approved landscape design, the garden is planted mainly in perennials.
“We didn’t really plan for the seasonal color that has become one of the garden’s best features,” Donna admits. “But we start with the vibrant yellows of our daffodils (part of the Capitol Hill Garden Club giveaway program) and then have a summer of pinks, blues and purples. And in the winter we decorate the large evergreen tree with red bows.” For Donna, a fairly recent Capitol Hill resident, tending to the park has given her a sense of community. In 2009, neighbors are looking into establishing rain barrels to help with the garden’s watering needs.
An Urban Forest – Northeast Hill Triangle Parks
Elizabeth Nelson has been adopting pocket parks on the northeast side of the Hill since the early 1980s. She is hoping that the historical nature of the pocket park on her block will protect it as decisions are made about a proposal to expand the Brown Memorial AME Church. It is a tight band of Hill residents who give time and money to beautify and better their street. Neighbors bring their dogs to romp and play in this triangle park, which is the last park site that was on the original L’Enfant map. Elizabeth and her husband, Nick Alberti, feel that historical significance and the installation of new trees are important reasons for the triangle to be saved. Over the past few years, the North Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association and the Trees for Capitol Hill group have bought and planted a variety of trees in this and other triangle parks.
“I think of these areas as an urban forest,” says Elizabeth, “and, I think a few years from now there will be this great green corridor of trees that will help in saving our water from rain runoff and our air in controlling carbon.” She is happy to be called a tree hugger, and hauls bucket after bucket of water in the summer to keep young trees thriving. Asked why she does it, Elizabeth quickly acknowledges her feeling “that we all have a responsibility to make the places we live the best they can be.” For the neighbors along 13th Street, North Carolina Avenue and Constitution Avenue NE, the pocket park effort is turning vacant spaces into a forest of chestnuts, maples, sweet gums, linden and elms.
So next time you’re walking around the Hill, stop and notice the pocket parks that add so much to the Hill’s character – and be thankful for the folks who commit themselves to keeping Capitol Hill green. |
