Greensboro Plan2Play Parks and Recreation Master Plan 2019

GREENSBORO PLAN2PLAY MASTER PLAN - 25

History of Parks Early Greensboro public life centered around school and church activities. The city lacked the dedicated, public green spaces that were designed in fellow North Carolina cities, like Raleigh and Chapel Hill. Instead, parks like Fisher Park were dedicated as green space retroactively in the early 1900s from ‘leftover’ parcels that were too steep for development or flooded. For example, Fisher Park features a linear green along a small creek surrounded by winding roads and homes on both sides. This park type became a precedent for the city’s recurring investment in open spaces within floodplains and creeks. Greensboro’s park system was championed by early city leaders. An advocate for linear open spaces along Greensboro’s many creeks was J. Van Lindley and his son Paul C. Lindley. Lindley was a successful pomologist (a botanist with a focus in fruit cultivation) and nurseryman who donated 60 acres for a recreation complex in 1902. The area is now called Lindley Park. His son, Paul C. Lindley later advocated for the inclusion of hundreds of acres into a connected linear park system paralleling North Buffalo Creek. His vision, which

can be seen today at Latham, Lindley, and Lake Daniel parks, was never fully realized due to his untimely death in a drowning accident and the later Wendover Avenue road expansion which bifurcated the green. Guilford Courthouse National Military Park (aka Battleground Parks District), is another significant park in Greensboro. Efforts to preserve the battlefield began in 1887 and by 1917 the battlefield was designated a National Military Park. The adjacent Country Park was constructed in 1934 with funding from the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Over the past ten years, the city has reinvested in its park infrastructure, drawing on public-private partnerships. Importantly, it successfully completed a $34.5 bond referendum in November 2016 that has allowed for needed updates, upgrades, and new facilities, parks and trails. Improved existing facilities across the city system include: • Spraygrounds at Barber Park (May 2010) and Keeley Park (April 2012) • Shade sails at pools & parks (2016- 2018)

• Blue Heron (2009-2011) & Kingfisher Trail (2012, second phase 2018) • Latham Skate Park (May 2017) and Glenwood Skate Spot (January 2017) • Inclusive Kayak Launch at Lake Higgins (June 2018) • J. Spencer Love Tennis 13 clay court tennis renovation project (April 2017) • Barber Park Event Center and Ruth Wicker Tribute to Women (January 2019)

• Master plans for various sites

Within city limits, investment by partners has provided:

• Guilford County National Military Park

• LeBauer Park (August 2016)

• City Center Park (December 2006)

• Cornerstone Parks and Downtown Greenway (Phases 1b1/1b2 – January 2018, Phase 1c – December 2018 (Grand Opening, Jan 2019), Phase 2e/3a - November 2017, Phase 3b - November 2014) • Bicentennial Greenway (Original section opened 1989, additional sections ongoing)