Making History Work For You in Recreation and Parks

By Robert F. Toalson

In recent years the growth of interest in local history has been tremendous. There is hardly a city or county that does not have an active historical society or an historical museum. Since the Bicentennial there has been a rush to preserve local historic buildings and have them entered on the National Historical Register. We in parks and recreation can capitalize on this interest and channel the public enthusiasm into support for parks and recreation. How many voters will support a tax reduction effort that would seriously affect the continued upkeep of the oldest park in town where the boys mustered to march off to fight in the Civil War? If we do our job right, that tax reduction effort will go down in defeat.

The first step of course is to become aware of the history of your parks and recreation system. It should be easy to check the dates park lands were obtained and when facilities were constructed. The age alone may be important historically but you also need to see in the case of donations if the donors were involved in historic events on the local, state or national level. For example, one of your parks may have been donated or purchased from the first settler in the area or the first and only blacksmith your town had.

Robert F. Toalson is General Manager of the Champaign Park District, having previously served as Director of the Oak Park Recreation Department. He is a past president of the Illinois Park and Recreation Society and the American Park and Recreation Association, and is a past Trustee of the National Recreation and Park Association. He has served as a visiting lecturer at the University of Illinois, Oregon State and Indiana Universities, and recently worked with Dr. Lynn Rodney in writing the second edition of the text book, Administration of Recreation, Parks, and Leisure Services.

Next you need to chronicle historic events that happened in your parks and/or buildings. Did a famous person speak or appear in one of your parks or buildings? Is one of your parks the site of an Indian campground or the first baseball game in the county, etc. Talk with long time residents of your community, check newspaper files, local history books, etc. You might also get a story in the local news media asking for help, particularly old photographs, news stories, letters, etc., that have information about your parks.

Once you have obtained historical information be sure it is verified and then write it down. Develop a history of parks and recreation in your community as well as separate histories of each park and facility. Continue to add to this history as you obtain new information and as new history takes place. When you build and dedicate a new baseball diamond, that is history. Put down the facts: date of dedication, who was present, how much it cost, who played the first game, etc.

Now that you have developed the history you need to proceed to the most important step. TELL PEOPLE ABOUT IT. Place historical markers and signs as necessary and get people involved. If you have done a good job, you will probably be able to convince the local news media to do feature stories on your historic parks. Alert the news media to old timers who can tell about the historical events that took place in the park. For example, if a former governor of the state spoke to a political rally in your park, schedule an event to unveil the plaque commemorating the governor's speech. The state park system, for example, re-enacts a Civil War battle in a park. Don't forget, however, that when you tell people about your historic parks and when the people come to visit that site it must present a good image if you want to capture their support. You must keep the area well maintained and well manicured.

Possibly your park and recreation district is fairly new and you say there is nothing of historical significance. In that case create your own history. Start a memorial tree program. Everyone of those trees planted becomes important to the people involved. You can count on their continued support if you maintain the trees and keep accurate records of their location. Twenty years from now when someone comes to your office to show their kids the tree planted for their grandmother you must be able to locate that tree.

During the Bicentennial there were many time capsules buried to be opened in the year 2076. What better place for that time capsule than in the center of your major park. If there is an important event

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going to take place in your community, why not have it held in your park. (Be sure to get good pictures.) Encourage donations of art for your parks. As you visit older parks in the United States and parks in Europe you find beautiful pieces of sculpture in the parks. One hundred years from now that piece of sculpture you obtain for your park will be quite a historic piece. Children today will tell their great grandchildren about playing on the sculpture as a kid.

People today are involved in the history movement. They can develop great pride in the history of their park and recreation system if we do our job. For example, two districts that have a lot of history in Illinois are the Chicago Park District and the Champaign Park District. Here are two short summaries of some of that history.

Chicago Park District: Many history books refer to the development of Central Park in New York City as a major significant event in the park and recreation movement in the United States. The land for Central Park was purchased in 1853. By that time the City of Chicago had established Dearborn Park (1838) at Michigan Avenue between Washington and Randolph Streets. The Chicago Public Library is now located there. Washington Square was established in Chicago in 1841 and the land for Lake Park (now known as Grant Park) was accepted from private property owners in 1844. Jefferson Park was established in 1848. Look at the development of the parks along the Lake Michigan waterfront. This is probably one of the most outstanding efforts of preserving a beautiful area for public use that can be found anywhere in the world. History continues in these parks; one of the most recent events being the Mass conducted by Pope John Paul II in Grant Park. The people of Chicago have every reason to be proud of their parks.

Champaign Park District: City Park was established in West Urbana (later renamed Champaign) in 1854. This was the year that development work started on Central Park in New York. This park today known as West Side Park was the site of a tremendous political rally in 1912 when Theodore Roosevelt spoke before the gathered townspeople as he campaigned for president of the United States on the Bullmoose party platform. The Champaign Park District has a picture of Roosevelt speaking from the bandshell in West Side Park and a marker has been placed at the location of that event. The park includes two beautiful pieces of art work. The sculpture "Prayer for Rain" fountain was completed in 1899 by America's pioneer animal sculptor, Edward Kemeys.¹ Mr. Kemeys also completed the "Lions" which stand at the entrance of the Art Institute in Chicago. The other sculpture portraying a white boy and an Indian boy playing together was completed by artist William Fathergill in Italy and installed in West Side Park in 1966.

Thirty six memorial trees are planted in West Side Park. A memorial to local police officers killed in the line of duty is located in the park and the Bicentennial capsule for Champaign County is buried next to the "Prayer For Rain" fountain in the park.

When a new park is acquired in Champaign there is probably not a tree on it. They have to be planted like the townspeople did in 1858 setting out over 800 trees in West Side Park. The District capitalized on this event by encouraging people to plant a tree in 1976 like the townspeople did in 1858. Over 500 trees were donated to plant in the parks during the Bicentennial year. Today the Champaign parks contain over 3500 trees. Based on a conservative estimate of $200 per tree, the value of these trees to the people of Champaign is $721,400. That is something for the taxpayers to support.

Yes, history can work for us in parks and recreation.

1 Michael Richman, "Americas Pioneer Animal Sculptor", National Sculpture Review XXI, No. 2, Winter 1972-73: p. 20.

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