Trinity Park Update

Written by Davis Hartwell. For more information, please contact Davis Hartwell, davis.hartwell@gmail.com.

Plans to make long needed renovations to Trinity Park are taking shape. Click here to check out the latest plan. It is still very much a work in process, but it has progressed a long way since we started envisioning how the area might be improved. Over the past 18 months, a planning group composed of members of Trinity Church, Friends of Woodfords Corner, and the City has been working to consider upgrades to the space and to solicit public feedback and engagement. Joshua Tompkins, a local landscape architect with experience designing public spaces, was brought in to help us consider options to make the space more inviting and visually attractive and to visualize the possibilities. Three alternative concept plans were presented at a public meeting and workshop at Odd Fellows Hall last October, and the comments provided at that meeting were used to develop the plan illustrated here.

Proposed improvements include:

  • Reducing the concrete areas to provide more green space

  • Widening the esplanade between the sidewalk and the Forest Avenue and putting more trees in that space

  • Adding a bus shelter

  • Replacing the Norway maples in the park (weed trees that have been allowed to grow up too close to the church building) with more suitable and better-situated tree species

  • Re-routing and replacing the cracked concrete pathways which are currently a trip hazard for anyone using the park

  • Adding plantings that are integrated with the pathways

  • Replacing the fountain, which takes up a lot of green space and is not integrated with the landscape, with a smaller water feature (not depicted in the current plan) that would be better situated and more appreciated by park users than the current fountain

  • Including areas for ornamental plants (both annuals and perennials) with irrigation

  • Adding pathway lighting

Next steps are to develop accurate cost estimates for the improvements. Funding would come from Trinity Church and the City, possibly with additional grants as necessary. A legacy left to the church by Jane Hartwell, a long-time and much loved member of the church and for 40 years a resident of the Woodfords neighborhood, will provide a substantial portion of the seed money for the renovations.

While the planning is underway, we still need to take care of what we have. We hope you can help out on at least one of our two upcoming volunteer days. On Saturday, November 2, and Saturday, November 9, please join your neighbors anytime from 9am to noon for fall clean-up and spring bulb-planting. You don't have to come for the whole time; if all you can give is an hour or two, we can find a job for you. Some tools will be available, but it would be helpful if you could bring your own. Refreshments will also be available. Dress for the weather. (If it is really, really inclement, we will postpone until Sunday afternoon from noon to 3 pm.)

For more information, please contact Davis Hartwell, davis.hartwell@gmail.com.

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