When Lexington’s newest park officially opens on August 23rd, one of the first things visitors will notice is a stream flowing right down the middle of the park. Gatton Park on the Town Branch is the culmination of ten years of planning, private fundraising, and for the last two years, construction.
From the beginning, designers saw Town Branch as a key focus of the 39-million-dollar park located on 11 acres behind Rupp Arena.
Allison Lankford, the CEO of the non-profit that planned and will manage park operations, says at first there wasn’t much of a stream to see.
“It looked like there were, strangely, trees growing up out of the middle of this parking lot. But if you kind of peeked in, you could see kind of a little water. One of the first things we did was take out all the invasive species to try to figure out what we had going on down there.”
Town Branch, a fork of Elkhorn Creek, is a small stream steeped in Lexington history. Pioneers built the first blockhouse in 1779 near the stream, which offered a source for drinking water.
As Lexington grew in the 1800s, businesses like distilleries and mills operated along the creek. But the influx of more people to Lexington also brought challenges. Town Branch flooded. It also became an open sewer, and in the mid-1800s, outbreaks of cholera killed hundreds of people in the city. People also complained about the stench and eyesore that had once provided clean drinking water.
By the 1930s, much of Town Branch had disappeared from view and flowed in culverts under city streets, collecting storm water along the way.
Today, Town Branch winds underneath Winchester Road at Midland Avenue, then turns under Vine Street, and goes below Rupp Arena. It reappears coming out of a culvert into Gatton Park on the Town Branch. As the steam was uncovered during park construction, workers found what was left of a stone wall that dates to 1790.
Lankford says, “We discovered a wall that clearly was historic and much more expansive than we thought. And so, we started restoring that stream bed, pulling back the banks, stabilizing it, and we paused on the end that had this historic wall.”
Steven Vogel, a park designer from Strand Associates in Lexington, says workers pulled away each stone of the wall.
“It was pulled down piece by piece, so that we could reuse that stone. And when it started to be deconstructed, you could see that it was actually three or four layers deep in most places. So, there was a lot of stone there that had been laid, again, dry-laid stone that had been standing since somewhere around 1790.”
Vogel says an interior concrete wall was built to stabilize the creek bed.
“We wanted to look at a system that was backed by an engineered wall, but also still paid homage to the stacked stone wall that was there. And so, behind what you can see is a fully engineered cast-in-place concrete wall with reinforcement that we know will stand the test of time, and then that stack stone wall is basically rebuilt right in front of it using all stones that were salvaged from the site. It's great to be able to go over there and see some of those stones that were in the original face of the wall still being used on that new wall.”
In addition to the stream, the park features an amphitheater that will seat approximately 4500 people, a stage under a roof, a children’s play area that resembles an old grist mill, a dog park, and a butterfly garden. Lankford says the park is an oasis of nature in the middle of a bustling city.
“It's a beautiful green space right in the heart of downtown, which makes it special in and of itself. We took 11 acres of asphalt and are turning it into, you know, this green public space with 450 trees, and thousands of plants. So that's special in and of itself, all centered around Town Branch Creek. But in addition to that, we've done so much community engagement around what the community wants for this space.”
To date, Lankford says they’ve raised 55 million dollars to build the park and operate it on a daily basis.
“Over 90% of that came from individuals, families, and a family foundation. So private philanthropy. We did receive a couple of federal grants, National Endowment for the Arts grants, along with our partner, Lex Arts, and the city has contributed money to improve areas outside of the park footprint at the main entrances and those roads and sidewalks.”
Lankford says the park will come alive on August 23rd. “I can hardly wait till August 23 to hear children's voices and families enjoying the space, because that's why we built it, and so to have that day when we open it up to the community. I think of it as our version of Central Park, and I think it's just an oasis in the middle of the bustling community. I think it also helps connect our city. You know, we have great things going on in the distillery and then the heart of downtown on the other side, and we're in between. And I think it'll really connect our entire downtown and make it just a vibrant core, and this will be a centerpiece of it.”
For more information, go to www.gattonpark.org.
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