05
JULY 6 - JULY 12, 2005
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
5
LOCAL HISTORY
Park to celebrate 150 years
BY ADAM LAND
aland@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Currently the Sesquicentennial Point is nothing more than a mowed path with a portable bathroom. But the Sesquicentennial Commission and the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department have big plans for this 1,600-acre sight near Clinton Lake.
The park is located northeast of the dam, and the commission has already collected more than $195,000 of its goal for $300,000 for the project.
Plans for the plaza include four concentric half-circles that represent 50-year increments of Lawrence's history, as well as a plaza at the top of the hill, which overlooks the entire park. Both the commission and the parks and recreation department have plans to put in an amphitheater, which would hold approximately 5,000 people, said Fred DeVictor, director of Parks and Recreation Department.
The commission will continue to raise funds until September 1, when the plans for the point are due, Clenece Hills, president of the commission, said.
Patrons can tour the point, which is open every evening from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. so people can watch the sunset.
The sunset hours are set up to entice people to the point, Hills said, but she was not sure how many people were visiting it.
Hills wanted to get all of the money raised by September 1, but said it was possible that it would not happen.
"It may have to go a little slower than we would like, but we still have some people who we think may be interested," Hills said.
Funds have come predominantly from sales of commemorative pathway stones, which are about one foot by four feet. Each brick will represent one year of Lawrence's first 200 years. The cost for each brick will be one dollar for each year, so the 1890 brick would cost $1,890.
The University of Kansas bought the stone representing 1865, the year of its
creation, Hills said. Other notable years still available include 1861, the year of Kansas' statehood, 1954, Lawrence's centennial, and bricks to commemorate the lives of authors Langston Hughes and William S. Burrows.
No other fundraising events are planned by the commission so far, Hills said.
Although the commission is working to make sure all aspects of the plaza are funded, the parks and recreation department will have control over the plaza and the entire 1,600 acres, DeVietor said.
Parks and Recreation representatives will meet with the commission sometime in August to discuss the amount of landscaping that can be done with the funds available, DeVictor said.
The park will continue to be developed for possibly 20 years, DeVictor said, comparing the Sesquicentennial park and point to that of Lawrence's Centennial Park.
"Centennial Park, a gift in 1954, has been ongoing, even within the last couple of years," DeVictor said. "This park will be the same."
The total cost for all the proposed installments to the park will be substantially more than $1.5 million, with the possible amphitheater costing approximately $1 million alone, DeVictor said.
-Edited by Erin M. Droste