BALTIMORE, November 24, 2009 – It’s not likely that the many Baltimoreans who have dedicated time, money and love to the hard work of making Patterson Park what it is today ever imagined that one day its name would appear on a select list of city parks alongside Central Park in New York, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and Grant Park in Chicago. But that’s exactly what has happened.

 

A November 18, 2009 article by Rob Baedeker posted at Forbes.com features twelve city parks selected on criteria suggested by Peter Harnik, director of the Center for City Park Excellence at the Trust for Public Land in Washington, D.C., and Alan Tate, author of Great City Parks.

 

Harnik believes that “a great city park has to be a beautiful space that also has a great relationship with the city.” Tate says, “Your whole sense of place changes when you go into a successful city park. It gives you a feeling of going away without leaving town.”

 

The fact that Patterson Park has achieved the stature of these qualities is remarkable, given the rise and fall of its fortunes over the 182 years of its life. Born in 1827 as a 6-acre donation to the City of Baltimore by the merchant William Patterson, to be used as a public walk, it grew to 35 acres before being used for military purposes during the Civil War. By 1864 the park was in terrible shape, but over the following few decades Baltimore architect George A. Frederick established the lovely Victorian character that has distinguished Patterson Park to this day.

 

By 1913 the park had been expanded to its current 140 acres, but the park and its immediate neighborhoods were nearly lost in the 1970s and 1980s when social and economic forces pushed the park into use for drug dealing, which resulted in violence, vandalism and neighborhood decay.

 

Several sputtering attempts were made to save Patterson Park, but it wasn’t until 1993 that area leaders and the Baltimore Department of Recreation and Parks began seriously focusing on park improvements and how to pay for them. That attention was important, but it has taken extraordinary efforts by dedicated and committed individuals to make it a great city park.

 

In 1998 a fledgling, non-profit group called Friends of Patterson Park evolved from a community master plan process. Tim Almaguer, the group’s current Executive Director, was there at the beginning and has helped Friends of Patterson Park develop the strong and productive relationship it has enjoyed with the Department of Recreation and Parks and surrounding communities.

 

Today, Friends of Patterson Park is a membership organization that helps promote, arrange and coordinate the wide array of activities and events that take place at Patterson Park all the time. Their website (posted below) contains information about the park and how individuals can become part of this vibrant group.

 

Over the years there have been many generous supporters of Friends of Patterson Park, along with collaborators like the non-profit group Banner Neighborhoods, which was founded in 1982 to provide communities in southeast Baltimore with resident-based leadership and neighborhood stability. Long term partners also include the Goldseker Foundation, the Baltimore Community Foundation, the Joseph & Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds, the Allegis Group and the Clayton Baker Trust.

 

While financial and organizational support are critical, Patterson Park would not be the success it is without the 6,000 hours a year of hands on work performed by neighborhood volunteers who have planted over 800 trees in 10 years and who maintain the park’s beauty and accessibility through good times and bad.

 

Congratulations, Baltimore, for producing one of America’s best city parks. May you enjoy what Mayor Sheila Dixon has called your “dynamic city jewel,” and may you be able to sustain her.

 

To read the Forbes article, visit www.forbes.com/2009/11/18/best-city-parks-lifestyle-travel-central-park.html

 

To learn more about Friends of Patterson Park, visit www.Pattersonpark.com