The sandpit ... a fun place at Connelly Memorial Park.

Connelly Memorial Park

A Cooperative Project

By Anthony Tyznik

A 3/4-ACRE TRIANGULAR parcel of land dedicated as a public park laid fallow for over forty years. Rural Lisle, a pioneer community, had an abundance of space and found no need for a public park.

During one summer, about 1960, some of the residents in the neighborhood combined their efforts and volunteered their labor to clear away dead trees, weeds, and mow a part of the park so their children could use it for play, but the work involved proved to be too much for a volunteer force.

In 1967 The Lisle Park District was established and the small triangular parcel appeared to be the logical beginning for public park development. In the fall of 1967 the Village of Lisle proclaimed that the park be named CONNELLY MEMORIAL PARK, in honor of a local resident who had given his life in attempting to save a woman from an on-coming train. Robert P. Connelly had been a Lisle Kiwanian, and the KIWANIS CLUB OF LISLE was eager to help make the park a fitting memorial. Thus began a three-year cooperative project (1969-1971).

The site was analyzed for design potential, as was the composition of the area around the site. It was noted that, along with a fair number of older people many children were present, representing a population with a wide age spread.

The site was very small, terminating in a narrow point. A worthy profile of stumps reminded us that at one time elm trees shaded the site. A few elms and black cherry remained—some dead and some alive. A portion of the site had been stripped of topsoil, exposing a heavy clay subsoil permeated by weeds. Dismal as it was, the site suggested possibilities for a park with a new character that could provide beauty and recreation to the adjacent area.

As many activities as possible were introduced into the site, with the primary interest directed toward the constructive aspects of children's play. It was felt that free play, where children could use and develop their imaginations unshackled by adult regimentation and playground supervision, was greatly curtailed and nearly non-existent in most park systems. Using this as a basis for the development, the design began to take form.

New play areas and features focusing on natural materials appeared in the plan. A large sand pit of free form in which a large fallen tree, vertical posts, and large boulders are incorporated is the major play feature. It provides the children with countless hours of imaginative play where they can feel the warm sand on their hands, feet and bodies, and where changing landscapes of mounds and castles come and go. A feeling of escalation and a change of pace results as attention shifts from sand sculpture to climbing and clinging to the warm, polished-from-use limbs of the fallen tree. Children perch in its extended

Anthony Tyzink is a commissioner for the Lisle Park District.

Illinois Parks and Recreation 34 September/October, 1972

branches, occasionally jumping into the sand pit or sliding lazily down the main trunk. The large boulders further help stimulate the imagination and relate to other natural materials.

A winding asphalt path surrounds the play space, providing a hard surface for tricycles, roller skating and hopscotch. Enclosed within the path is a turf area to be used for lawn games or a place to run and jump. A climbing apparatus composed of platforms at varied levels introduces another series of activities where children climb to various heights, and descend by sliding along a fireman's pole, a log slide or jumping into a pit cushioned by wood chips. Extending from the climbing structure, two arms hold a rope swing and climbing rope. A well-branched dead tree set into the soil beckons additional attention from active children expressing a desire to climb.

Horseshoe courts for men and women and a number of picnic tables in the shade of the few remaining trees provide activities for adults and families.

During the design process, successful vacation of a street provided enough additional space to provide a tennis court and enlarge the park area to about one acre.

A small garden separated from other activity by a wood fence, marked by a bronze plaque and dedicated to the memory of Robert P. Connelly provides an area for meditation and quiet reflection. Ornamental shrubs, flowers and ground covers display their varied forms, textures, colors and line patterns. From the tender unfolding buds and flowers of spring, into the maturing foliage of summer, the warm foliage tones of autumn, the ominous frosty chill of coming winter and its quiet snowy landscape, a visitor can muse over the mysteries of life and his relationship to nature around him.

A pool and fountain accent the garden, where sound and motion pacify the visitor as he takes a moment to sit and reflect in the shade of a tree ruffled by the wind. The song of a robin in the midst of a summer morning and the restless call of a chick-a-dee in the warm glow of autumn add their beauty to the harmony of a garden of memory.

To avoid the sterile quality of so many parks devoted entirely to active recreation, this park is interlaced with trees and shrubs to provide welcome shade in the summer and a constantly changing landscape of spring flowers, tender foliage, variety of color and textures in foliage, bark and branches, warm, beautiful autumn foliage punctuated by attractive fruits, and the graceful tracery of unlimited line patterns exposed in the nakedness of trees and shrubs in the winter landscape. Snow comes lazily to this site to display a new beauty, muffling sound and softening every form, suggesting a period of rest. In its own casual but deliberate manner, nature reveals its subtle ways. A seed germinates, a plant grows and flowers, a plant matures, and a plant dies. Out of the litter of death, responding to light, rain, wind and soil, the substance of which life mysteriously is composed, comes new life and hope.

The health of a park is reflected in the harmony of its many units, pronounced in the variety and beauty of nature, the happy sounds of children at play, and the results of the many unselfish hours of volunteer help. Members of the Lisle Kiwanis Club donated many hours of their evenings and Saturdays during 1970 and the spring of 1971. Paths were built, trees and shrubs were planted, a patio was constructed, land was leveled, sod was laid and weeds were pulled. Members of the LISLE GARDEN CLUB have taken on the responsibility of planting and maintaining the flowers within the memorial garden.

The personal involvement of concerned members of a community can make a project move to a successful completion. The results are evident at the site of Connelly Park which grew from neglect to an area of beauty and enjoyment—a fitting memorial to one who also sacrificed.

Memorial Garden entrance, Connelly Memorial Park.

Illinois Parks and Recreation 35 September/October, 1972