Although two Chattanooga mayors and several other local parks dignitaries were on hand late Saturday morning to mark Coolidge Park’s 25th anniversary, they were almost inconspicuous amid the beehive of other activities there.
Adults and children on their way to a variety of places inside the park weaved past the small gathering in curved routes resembling the Carousel ride a few feet away. Their destinations included the Between the Bridges arts festival, the splash pad, the Carousel itself, and simply the expansive grass where they were planning to play or run.
But maybe that offered as stirring a statement about the park and what it means to Chattanooga as the speakers tried to articulate in a nostalgic manner during the formal program.
Chattanooga Parks & Outdoors director of design and neighborhood connectivity Blythe Bailey did connect on this theme at one point in referencing a noted parks consultant and saying, “Parks are their best as they grow over time.” He later added, “The good sign of a park is for it to look like it has always been here.”
Yes, the 25th anniversary of the opening of the park was a salute to its current state of positivity as much as to its beginning. But officials also wanted to highlight the beginning and how it all came to fruition.
“It’s important to take stock of what happened here, and it’s incredible,” said Mayor Tim Kelly, adding that making the park a reality 25 years ago took such characteristics as patience and perseverance.
He added that Chattanooga has unveiled an updated parks plan because of the importance of such places as Coolidge Park and new or enhanced recreation areas that will later come along. “My conviction is that parks and greenspaces are the things that make Chattanooga special,” he added.
Former Mayor Jon Kinsey, who was in office when the park opened in 1999, jokingly remembered learning that a park had also been planned at that site right after World War II and was to be named after local Medal of Honor recipient and hero Charles Coolidge.
But it later became a Naval Reserve training site, although much of it was still nice greenspace when passersby would look down at it from the Market Street Bridge and see such businesses as the Arnold Palmer ProGroup golf manufacturing building on the other side.
Mayor Kelly added that he remembered seeing military equipment at the site as a child and thinking it would be a nice place for a park.
Former Mayor Kinsey added that as plans were made to turn it into a park, they realized the actual cost was going to be much more than the originally estimated $8 million. But that did not deter them, he said.
“We had to find the extra money. Finding that extra money was certainly worth it,” he said, adding that a lot of it came from private sector contributions. “I love seeing the children having a good time” and other activities going on.
Retired city parks administrator Larry Zehnder highlighted some of the pieces that came together to help get the park open while Mayor Kinsey was in office. Arriving in the early 1990s under the Mayor Gene Roberts administration, he said that the park was basically completed in 1997, although it was not formally finished and opened until two years later.
He said the opening of a restored Walnut Street Bridge, the work of which was completed in 1993, certainly helped the park. “People could get on there and walk over here,” he said.
Mr. Zehnder also praised such steps as citizens input and the ability to get land easements for the park. The well-known Delta Queen boat was also parked on the shore and provided a dining place in the early days, he said.
The Carousel – perhaps the marquee attraction of the park -- came about almost unintentionally, he inferred, when he learned the city of Atlanta was wanting to get rid of their ride frame at Grant Park.
“I told them that we will take care of it, so I brought it here,” Mr. Zehnder recalled with a chuckle.
As many Chattanoogans remembered, local residents at the Horsin’ Around carving school in St. Elmo under Bud Ellis made the wooden animals for the ride.
Mr. Zehnder later in the program also introduced former city parks head Darrell McDonald, who attended and was greeted with applause.
Another local attraction at the park has been the Walker Pavilion, and fellow ceremony speaker and District 2 City Council member Jenny Hill said that is where she held her rehearsal dinner. She also said she earlier worked at a nearby coffee shop when work was just beginning on the park and remembers seeing dirt being moved around before she had a full vision of the park.
Now, she likes what she sees, she added. “For me this park has been a special place,” she said, adding that she has seen people get engaged there or photographers taking special family fall photos.
The popularity of the park has also spurred increased economic development on Frazier Avenue and the rest of the North Shore. Geno Wallace of Geno’s Salon, who was speaking for the North Shore merchants group, said he remembered the area around the park about 1989 when it had minimal activity and the Walnut Street Bridge was closed. He went so far as to call it a dark and deserted area at that time.
But he said such places as the Chattanooga Theatre Center and the Northside Neighborhood House have thrived in the area for decades, and now several businesses are coming along as the North Shore has become such a hub of activity.
Saluting these businesses, he said of them, “Thank you for your perseverance and commitment and following your dreams and sharing with the rest of the world.”
And based on the smiles seen throughout the park, many Chattanoogans on Saturday were obviously happy Coolidge Park has been shared as a public space with the community for 25 years as well.
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