John Shearer: Exploring And Searching For Greenways, Part 11 – Visiting Riverview and White Oak Parks…And Dreaming Of A New Red Bank Park

In recent days, I visited two parks and one piece of open space that were all of various ages.

 

They included Riverview Park that has been around for decades, White Oak Park that opened in recent years and the now-grass-covered site of the old Red Bank Middle School on Dayton Boulevard.

 

Despite their many differences, each one had a lot of neat amenities that make or, in the case of the vacant school site, would make nice park space.

 

The first park I visited was Riverview Park more than two weeks ago, when I had about an hour I was looking to fill one Sunday afternoon.

 

I had said a couple of greenway entries ago that Jefferson Park off Main Street served the residential neighborhood around it perfectly well, maybe better than any other park in town.

 

And then I remembered Rivervew Park, which serves maybe an even larger residential neighborhood very well.

Sitting at the historic border of Riverview and North Chattanooga, the city of Chattanooga park is not overly large, but seems to have a lot of nice amenities.

 

I could not find any historical information online, and the Chattanooga Public Library downtown is still closed. But  the park could possibly date to earlier than the 1939 date found on the Works Progress Administration’s New Deal construction of the stone wall and entrance around it.  

 

After all, all the homes around it date to earlier than that.

 

The agency workers also probably built the vintage restroom building, which also has a faint art deco-inspired effect with the cast stone rings above the support post. This is also almost mirrored with the steps leading out the park’s corner entrance.

 

Although it is probably the city of Chattanooga park that is located in the neighborhood with the highest median prices of homes, to me it has always given off vibes that everyone is welcome there, even though it probably draws mostly from the neighborhood.

 

I know when I lived a few miles north by Hixson Pike in the 1980s and ‘90s, I would park my car there and jog around the park and along the nice grassy strip by Riverview Road, or play tennis there because it is a good central location. And numerous other outsiders would as well.

 

Since I have been using that park for nearly four decades, I have seen a few changes. The playground was expanded onto an old basketball court in the 1990s and is recognized in a plaque.

 

A plaque also states that Riverview Park was dedicated to Benjamin William Kilbride “in celebration of his friendships, which began here and the boyhood he lived to the fullest.”

 

According to a story found online, the vibrant youngster and Bright School sixth-grader had unfortunately died in an accident in a neighbor’s backyard on Hillcrest Road in 2000.

 

A stage and flat covered amphitheater were built a few years before the playground improvements, or at least after I started visiting the park regularly in the mid-1980s.

 

The latter is a great and unique amenity, although I am not sure how much it is used, since I am not by the park as much as I once was. The creative uses for it seem endless, though, from drama to music to other small-scale performing events.

 

Some trees have also been been planted in recent years. That includes some beautiful maple trees that will become even prettier when they mature, as well as some not-so-great Bradford pear trees.

 

Like at Jefferson Park, Riverview Park has one arboreal star – a giant oak in the middle of the park on the side by Terrace Avenue. It is the only old tree inside the park fence, I believe.

 

Also appealing to me is the large grassy space on the west end of the park.

 

And the park has one of the great and classic local stone entrances, wall and fence constructed by the WPA.

 

I am not sure what I would do to improve this park, other than to maybe replace the Bradford pears with dogwoods and see how much the two tennis courts are used during normal times. The wall also needs a little repair in places.

 

On Thursday, nearly two weeks later, I continued my park journey by going to White Oak Park, which is accessed via Midvale Avenue on the west side and Pine Breeze Road on the east end.

 

The park, a city of Red Bank complex, had opened in 2003 on the site of an old landfill. When I first laid eyes on it two or three years ago, for some reason it did not strike me as being overwhelmingly pretty. One of its greatest concentrations of activity, other than a special event or gathering at one of the pavilions, seemed to be the dog park, where mostly young people in about their 20s all seemed to have lovable big dogs!

 

And as someone who finds jogging – or maybe even walking -- on steep hills not an overly inviting activity at my age of 60, it is a very vertical trail due to the fact it is on a ridge.

 

However, after I went back and examined it a couple of times, I found that I love it. The vertical location – and the cleared top that is a 100-plus-yard field for soccer and other activities – are friends instead of foes in that the top offers a great view of Raccoon Mountain and maybe part of Signal Mountain in the distance.

 

The bottom also has an interesting and pretty wetland lake, although I became curious what kinds of critters they are trying to trap as indicated by the signs along it warning people to be careful about going in there.

 

The dog park is also nice, and it looks like city and park officials could expand it out to the entrance road and add some more space if they desired.

 

And the winding greenway trail is well laid out to make a hill climb as easy as possible. I was especially touched when I realized the pathway is named in memory of Ronnie Moore, who served as Red Bank mayor and/city commissioner for six consecutive terms unopposed beginning in the 1980s.

 

That was quite a feat. And since the South end of Red Bank – with its historic homes and some new construction -- is now blossoming into an extension of popular North Chattanooga, probably a few younger people interested in urban issues, would want to serve in his former seat now.

 

I knew Ronnie because he was my good friend from the old days at the Chattanooga News-Free Press. He died in 2008 not long after he retired from the merged Times Free Press.

 

He loved traveling to Europe and had married an English bride, Diane, and I am glad a pedestrian traveling path is named in his memory. The walkway also has a nice variety of young hardwood trees lining it, and they will no doubt provide additional shade on summer days for those going uphill.

 

Also in the park, some currently closed playground equipment is likely a big draw, as are the three or so nicely designed and well-built picnic and gathering pavilions, one or two of which might also be named in honor of a Red Bank civic volunteer or public servant.

 

And plans include a trail linking with nearby Stringer’s Park as well, thanks to the Trust for Public Land.

 

Of course, as I have stated before, I judge a park by whether it has enough grass for this grass jogger and enough of a nice view around it to make it enjoyable for 30 minutes. This is definitely the case with Riverview Park and its modest-sized open field, even though I usually jog up Riverview Road, too.

 

And this is true as well for White Oak Park. When I jogged there recently, I decided to park at about the midway point just above the dog park, and immediately began jogging up the steep hill that was about 40 yards long. I probably looked like I was in Marine boot camp training – until I ended up gently walking the last 20 or 30 yards!

 

I then had a nice jog around the field several times and enjoyed the elevated view, and then went down to the wetlands area and back. It was fun!

 

The second park I stopped by to examine on Friday was actually not a park. It is the old, now-razed Red Bank High School/Middle School site. A junior high first opened there in the late 1930s and then for years it was a high school and later a middle school before it was torn down in 2013 when the new middle school opened.

 

A neat and very historic old gym sat on the side facing Leawood Avenue, and the old Rankin Field – home of some good football in the past -- sat in the southwest corner, with the slope where the home grandstand stood still visible.

 

Since this is a critique-style story and not a news article, I have not checked to see if any plans are imminent for the site. I understand that a land swap occurred to build the new middle school off Morrison Springs Road, and the city of Red Bank was wanting to sell the land for a suitable development and get it on the tax rolls.

 

Since that is a nice piece of grassy space – which I have jogged on several times and seen others walk their dogs -- I would encourage a part greenway/part retail development if that is feasible.

 

The land is big enough that maybe about 40 percent could be used for some kind of development, maybe a town center or just a few retail places, and then preserve the rest as a park with a path and trees, pavilions, etc.

 

The site also has a neat and panoramic view of this area of Red Bank, including of some nice surrounding homes and the handsome Red Bank United Methodist Church.

 

So, maybe officials could have some of the park accessible from Dayton Boulevard, and fix up the old school’s stone wall and steps. The small park diagonally across Dayton Boulevard is nice, but at least some kind of park of at least a few acres would be an added draw.

 

Maybe the old school site could be a smaller and recreated version of the very popular stretch of Frazier Avenue facing Coolidge Park.

 

Shoot, maybe they can even get Clumpie’s to open another branch location there!

 

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To see the previous story in this series, read here: https://www.chattanoogan.com/2020/5/24/409562/John-Shearer-Exploring-And-Searching.aspx

 

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Jcshearer2@comcast.net