I’m collecting information on Ward Park for a presentation and am soliciting the Blog’s help in providing any background information, current conditions and needs there. Personal recollections and observations would also be great. What is the importance of the Park to the neighborhood?

Wondering if this could also be used to commemorate our neighborhood’s men and women who may have fought in later conflicts including Iraq.

The only thing that I found about Ward Park was a City Paper article last year



City Paper Article
October 13-19, 2005

24th and Aspen
At a corner war memorial, veterans remember the fallen in their own way.

by Doron Taussig

Thirty-seven years ago, at the height of the Vietnam War, a 21-year-old door gunner from Fairmount named Patrick E. Ward ran to board his departing helicopter, but, caught in a swirl of fear and adrenaline, leapt onto the wrong one. The bird he was supposed to be on completed its mission safely. The one he actually hopped into did not.

Back in Fairmount, a devastated community gathered for an enormous funeral. Patty's friends from Roman Catholic High School turned out en masse; his father's buddies from the police force all came to show support. Bill Phillips, who runs Phillips Funeral Parlor at 23rd and Brandywine streets, says it was the biggest funeral of his life.

"Patty was a special kid," he says. "[The Wards] were a good kind of people."

As time passed, normalcy began to return for many, but not for Patty's father, who was so broken up that he had to be assigned to the "roundhouse" (radio control room) — or for Phillips, who had known Patty "from a little boy" and felt that something was amiss.

"I said to myself, 'Geez, this kid deserves something we can remember him for,'" Phillips says.

His eye settled on a small plot of land at 24th and Aspen streets that was owned, but not maintained, by the city. Phillips made a few phone calls, and before long he gained permission to turn the plot into a park, and dedicate it in Patty's honor.

Ward Park looks as though the corner house has been plucked from a block of row homes, leaving in its wake a small, concrete rectangle. Inside this void is a stone commemorating Patty Ward; pinned on the back wall are plaques for other neighborhood veterans. There are also flags of various sizes, trees — including one incongruous Christmas tree and others that have old, moldy stuffed animals strung from the branches — and several chairs and benches. Usually, there is a group of older men in the seats.

"It's either sit here and socialize or sit home by myself," says Fran Ryan, 82, a World War II vet and former quality control manager for A&P. Since his wife passed away six years ago, Ryan has been one of a group of about 10 regulars who sit in the park, on and off, between 9:30 in the morning and late at night. In the winter, someone parks a car nearby and the men sit in that, running the engine for heat if necessary.

Almost all of these regulars are veterans (most, of World War II), and have lived in Fairmount all their lives. Had Patty Ward survived, he might have begun sitting here in a few years. But despite being a group of veterans in a veterans' park, which happens to be across the street from a Veterans of Foreign Wars building, the men say that they rarely discuss their military experiences. They describe themselves as boring.

On a recent Thursday morning, four men sit in Ward Park, enjoying a molasses-paced conversation about area lumber yards and how to pay for repaving the park floor. Late morning commuters say hello as they stop to pick up a Metro from the pile on a bench, and Hugo "Augy" (pronounced: Oogy) Caroselli watches for an electrician he has promised to let in for a neighbor. The neighbor is a medical student, and the men sometimes argue over whose girl she is.

Augy says that once you reach a certain age, change doesn't excite you much anymore. But the men do sometimes talk about how Fairmount is changing.

"The yuppies are moving in," says Jim O'Brien.

"They call it gentrification, don't they?" asks Augy.

"Well, I think you have to be a total ghetto to get that," O'Brien explains. "We were never quite there. Close, but no cigar."

Patty Ward's sister, Elaine Favuzzi, hasn't been chased out by the yuppies, and every now and again she drops by the park that she calls "a beautiful memory" of her brother. Bill Phillips visits, too. He still lives and works a few blocks away in a combination house and funeral parlor, the exterior of which is decorated with numerous American flags and yellow ribbons. Inside the house, there is a wealth of military paraphernalia, including a collection of books about World War II and an old cassette tape, sitting on the coffee table, labeled "Taps."

Phillips is a veteran of the National Guard, though he never served in combat. His son, William Jr., is serving with the Guard in Iraq right now. Though Phillips built Ward Park in the middle of a controversial war, he thinks it will take some time before anyone does something like that to commemorate an Iraq war vet.

"It'll have to wait for more men to come home," Phillips says. "That'll inspire people to do something in their honor."

The key, he says, is for an entire community to come together to honor one of their own.


http://citypaper.net/articles/2005-10-13/cityspace.shtml


.

If you haven't done it already, the best source of information are the folks hanging in the park - a wonderful group, many regulars, some not. Just head down and talk to them.

As far as the general condition and upkeep of the park, the FCA has talked in the past about helping in this area but I don't know the current status.

I think of Ward Park as a wonderful mini-town square, campo, etc. The memorial stone for Patrick Ward is compelling. As a toddler, my daughter was inclined to want to climb on it (as little guys do), and I would tell her not to do that. As she got a bit older, I tried to explain in child's terms, what the stone stood for, and that it wasn't a climbing toy. At the age of 3 or 4 when she was learning her letters, she would sit in front of the stone and trace her finger along them, figuring the letters out as she went. In a year or so, she will be old enough to read the inscription for herself. Ward Park is part of the glue that holds this community together. I'm sure we'd all like to hear whatever information you can collect.

I do intend to interview them. I doubt if any are members of the Philly Blog. But I would like to get the neighborhood’s perspective as well. The only time that I see Ward Park mentioned is as a staging area for a tree planting or clean-up day event. Surely, it has to be more significant than that. Or if not, why not? Maybe people just don’t care about things like that anymore.

It is a significant public space in the neighborhood. Not only does it honor a neighborhood resident, it serves as a place to meet and talk with your neighbors, learn about what's going on and participate in the life of the neighborhood. When I first moved to the area, I met and became friendly with neighbors on my block that are regulars at Ward Park. I look forward to seeing them there and meeting new people whenever I stop by to visit.

There are only a few places that combine both tragedy and valor in this world. From my personal experience, I was very moved when I touched the wall of the Viet Nam Memorial in Washington. I didn’t know any of the dead personally, and thankfully, but their sacrifice was so great and so overwhelming that I wept. That was my generation.

But a memorial park, in my opinion, should be a testament and celebration to both the living and the dead. I’m glad to see that those who served are using it so well. But is that where it ends?

The park honors Patrick Ward, a neighborhood resident who lost his life in Vietnam. His father is still alive as far as I know. He may still live in Fairmount also, I'm not sure, but I think he does. He goes to the services/masses they have there.

There is another memorial stone in that park for the Gold Star Mothers. It's next to the tree on the west side. That stone was put there a few years ago. It was being defaced in it's original location, which was (IIRC) somewhat north of Girard Ave. They were looking for a suitable place to move it to and Ward Park was volunteered.

There are also plaques on the wall there. I think there are 13 of them. I believe they honor neighborhood residents who died in WW2. There's also a plaque for Joe Kelly Sr, who did a lot of work to keep the park clean.

(What follows is completely second and/or third hand info and may or may not be true depending on whether you talk to one of the older guys who sit there or one of the younger people in the unnamed civic assoc. Take it for what it is ... gossip and rumor)

As for sprucing up the park, I heard that a civic assoc offered to help with brick and cement work, new benches, and so forth but they insisted on technical drawings and wanted to approve any work and/or make changes as they saw fit. The older guys were a little "put off" about that and were hesitant to let someone else decide what was going to be done to the park they have kept for so long. They had some craftsmen who were willing to donate the labor, they just wanted help with the cost of the materials. They didn't want to be told what to do.

I can understand them not wanting to cede decision making to people they don't know and (as far as they're concerned) haven't shown an interest in the park, or what it stands for, or helped to maintain it. I can also understand a civic assoc wanting drawings and estimates before turning over any money. It would be nice if the two sides could reach some agreement and the park made a little nicer for those guys.

Just for full disclosure my father sometimes uses the park when his health permits. He rides his elec chair over there to talk with his friends since it's close to his house. So you could say I have a vested interest in seeing it made a little nicer.

If you have any specific questions let me know and I'll ask my father. He's a long time resident.

I spoke with Mr. Caroselli yesterday. He remembers that the building originally on the site was a corner candy store run by a woman named McTague (?). All the businesses at the intersection of 24th and Aspen were stores back in the 1930s. When I asked why the building had come down (fire?), he said he wasn't sure, but during the depression when a property owner couldn't get a renter, they often tore the building down to decrease the taxes. Mr. Caroselli's sense was that with the improvements to the area around Poplar Way and Girard, that the Gold Star Mother's monument may be returning north in the not too distant future.

Mr. Caroselli and Mr. Ryan told me that they had had a meeting this week with the City Planning Commission, and they the city had presented some proposals for the park. It seems one of the main issues is that the grading is uneven, and rainwater (which we seem to have an abundance of at the moment) is pooling up, and potentially causing problems for the adjoining house.

I had asked them if the proposals were what THEY wanted, and that their needs were paramount. They seemed ok with the proposals, which included repaving, fixing the grade, building a new, slightly larger shed and removing the old one, creating seating wall around the flag pole and raising up the stone (the curbing there is a tripping hazard), removing the square bench, and improving the electric hook up.

I can't speak to any previous discussions about the park, only that I can't remember it coming up during any FCA meetings. If the city still holds ownership of the park, I can see that they would want to have technical drawings for any improvements for liability purposes. Given the rate of collapsing houses in the city, I'm sure their legal department would want engineering drawings for work that involves any earth moving.

PS: One of the ideas for the Arts Crawl was to create a time in Ward Park, where the gentleman could share some of their stories about the neighborhood. The response so far has been positive.

Mr. Caroselli is an excellent source of info. on the park. As far as FCA involvement, here's a brief overview on plans for neighborhood parks that was sent out in the February FCA newsletter. There was a general follow-up at a spring meeting, but that's it.
________________

The Parks of Fairmount

The FCA is working with Friends of Eastern State Penitentiary Park (FESPP), the Fairmount Community Development Corporation (FCDC), and others to enhance each of our neighborhood's five parks…

Ward Park (24th and Aspen): FCA and the FCDC are working with the daily occupants to develop plans for a much needed face-lift.

Playground (26th and Fairmount): Plans are in the works for a major rehab around a "train theme" in commemorate the site's former occupant, Baldwin Locomotive Works.

Bulldog Park (25th and Fairmount) FCA plans to continue last year's maintenance and planting efforts-- a real challenge with all the surrounding construction.

Turtle Park (22nd and Aspen) FCDC is in the process of being leasing the park for rehab.

Eastern State Play Area (22nd and Brown) FESPP has fundraising underway to rehab the park.

All these plans are for BIG improvements… and here's where you can help!!! All these projects need volunteers. There are plenty of things you can do… Please contact Linda Carpenter at cs@fairmountcivicassociation.org to connect with the right project for you.

Just as a clarification, when I wrote civic assoc I meant that in a broad generic sense. I did not mean to imply it was the FCA. I should have wrote something like "community group". Looking back now it looks like I was making a not very veiled reference to the FCA and that wasn't my intention.