Overton Park was designed in 1901, a time when there were only a handful of automobiles on the roadways of Memphis. These days, of course, cars seem to outnumber the trees, and the busiest of corridors is Poplar Avenue, Overton Park's front stoop.
While a new pedestrian entrance has been created on the east side of the 342-acre park along East Parkway, the south side--that stoop side--where Cooper Street begins, is woefully lacking as a welcoming pedestrian entryway. There are no sidewalks on that portion of the park. When one enters from that point, she does so with a drop off and ends up on the seventh fairway of the golf course. The vehicular entrance is a mere 9 iron from that point.
This will all be changing soon, according to the
Overton Park Conservancy, the group charged with overseeing the operations, assets and management of the city-owned park. A proposed entrance has been funded by the Tennessee Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) through the City of Memphis, with construction to begin in 2015.
The Conservancy is currently working with architecture firm
Ritchie Smith Associates on the design of other park improvements including a perimeter trail to ring the entire park, making the three existing entrances safer and more inviting, and creating a half-mile circuit around the Greensward. This phase is being funded by a
Mid-South Regional Greenprint Subplanning Award, and public input is being welcomed in the form of a
survey.
By Richard J. Alley
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.