January 15, 2013 by Rose Lucas
Always an active group with many projects and many hands to help, about the same time as the Northside Historic District endeavor was underway in the mid-1980’s, the Northside assumed ownership of the property on the southeast corner of North Broadway and Fifth Street (former home of one of our corner groceries, interesting particularly because the porch roof ran out all the way to the street and was a wonderful shelter from sun and rain). NNA commenced to build Founders Park, guided in part by Chuck Mallory who helped with the design and building of the park. Kudos, though, go to the neighbors who helped maintain the park, to the lovely Miss Catherine Dunn, longtime secretary of NNA, who allowed us to run a water hose to the park from her property two doors away to keep the newly planted park alive, and to the ongoing efforts over the years to plant perennials from neighborhood gardens and annuals to keep the park vibrant for passersby. More kudos to those who were responsible for the recent cleanup of the park this past fall. Founders Park and the North Broadway tree planting project, in memory of Mildred Moloney, and funded partly by memorials for her after her death, were two of the earliest Action Match Grant Projects approved by LFUCG. James B. Evans, Landscape Architect, with an office in the Northside, designed the tree project, and more than 70 street trees, maple, oak, London plane and Aristocrat pear, were planted from Second Street to beyond Loudon Avenue to preserve the tree canopy along this main entrance into downtown Lexington. Prior to 1986, a number of flowering trees along the 400 and 500 blocks of Broadway were planted in memory of George Lamason, founder and a past president. Each spring Broadway is bright with blossoms from these projects. March is not far away!! Now, can we figure out how to eliminate the muddy utility strips along Broadway from Fourth to Sixth Streets? Can we make those strips green again? Or should we consider trying to brick in the strips? What can we do to make these two unsightly pedestrian and vehicle ways look good?
