After seven years of negotiations with the city and the local school board, the Paulus Hook neighborhood is finally closer to seeing the long-hoped-for redesign of Paulus Hook Park.

While current plans are still preliminary and must receive further input from the local neighborhood, the historic park at the corner of Grand and Washington streets is on track for a complete makeover that could include a community playground, water sprinklers, a dog run, and active and passive space.

On June 6, residents from Paulus Hook saw for the first time some of the ideas for the redesign that have been drafted by two architectural and landscape design firms working on the project. Residents were given an opportunity to literally map out a few park features they’d like to see in Paulus Hook Park. This community input process will continue next month.

Henry Lee fought here

The park and a white obelisk monument that sits in it memorialize an historic battle that took place during the Revolutionary War between British and American soldiers – but one would never know it from looking at the park today.

A 1-acre park that actually sits on four corners at the intersection of Grand and Washington, the area is somewhat shabby and easy to miss. The southwest corner of the park is fenced off and used by PS 16 for recess and other school activities. The other three quadrants of the park lack a unified look to tie them together and look more like unplanned open space than a traditional park.

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The 1-acre park is somewhat shabby and easy to miss.
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The park’s image today belies the neighborhood’s history and significance to the Revolutionary War, however.

The area was home to one of several forts that patriot forces used to guard against the British, although the fort was later abandoned and occupied by the British. In 1779, at the urging of George Washington, Major Henry Lee decided to storm the fort and attack British forces in Paulus Hook.

Lee and his men were unsuccessful in taking the fort and ultimately withdrew from the battle. But they were able to capture more than 150 British soldiers and the battle is considered to have historical significance because it altered British war strategy.

The Paulus Hook area also has deep significance for local Native American history as well.

‘Gated and inaccessible’

Ironically, much of this rich history is not evident in the park that is meant to commemorate it.

Thus, the Historic Paulus Hook Association’s Parks Committee has been working since 2006 to get the park redesigned so that it better serves the current needs of the local community and has stronger ties to the neighborhood’s past.

When the Historic Paulus Hook Association began this work, “three corners of the park were gated and inaccessible,” said Stephanie Daniels, chairwoman of the group’s parks committee. “One corner of the park was being used to house ‘temporary’ classroom trailers due to overcrowding at PS 16.” (The school was built as a kindergarten-through-fourth grade elementary school, Daniels explained, but was being use as a pre-kindergarten through eighth school.)

For three years, the parks committee met with parents from PS 16, then Superintendent of schools Charles Epps and various city officials, including Ward E City Councilman Steven Fulop, to, Daniels said, “find a solution to the overcrowding at the school and to address the issue that the park, which had been funded by Green Acres, was not being utilized as a park.”

The park was officially turned over to the city in 2010 after the middle school students were transferred to MS 4.

The city later gave the Historic Paulus Hook Association the right to redesign the park and to raise money to get the job done. The estimated cost of the redesign will be about $1 million. With a $50,000 grant from the New Jersey Historic Trust Fund, the architectural and landscaping design firms of Thomas Balsey Associates and Clarke Caton Hintz were hired to work on the redesign.

The two firms presented their preliminary ideas for the redesign last week, and invited feedback from local residents.

A few ideas on the table

Residents who attended the June 6 park redesign meeting favored the idea of giving the four quadrants of Paulus Hook Park a unified look – that will be achieved by using the same materials for each section – while also giving each section its own unique theme.

The southwest corner, which is still used by PS 16 for student recess periods, will likely keep a children’s theme and incorporate a playground that PS 16 will use during school hours, but which will be open to families in the late afternoons and weekends.

The southeast corner might in some way pay homage to the area’s past as a marshland and may be used as a pathway that residents can use to cut through the community.

While planners from Clarke Caton Hintz have suggested that the northeast corner be used as a small “water park,” some residents did not like this idea and might be more interested in having this quadrant – which gets the most sunlight – used as a community garden.

The northwest quadrant could be redesigned to resemble e the small neighborhood parks found in New York, replete with chess tables and park benches.

Some residents have also expressed an interest in seeing a dog run incorporated into one of the four quadrants.

At the June 6 meeting, residents began mapping out a few of their ideas for the park redesign. The Historic Paulus Hook Association will meet again on July 11 to continue discussion of how the park should be redesigned.

E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.

Published: Sunday, June 09, 2013

Iowa is well known for its wind. Electric utilities are even building wind farms to capture it for electricity. But what if you want to block the wind from your yard, garden or field? Linn County Master Gardener Lori Klopfenstein gives you some tips to make it last.

Q: How do I plant a windbreak?

A: Are you interested in establishing, fortifying or repairing a wind break on your property? To ensure its greatest potential for long term hardiness, here are some facts.

First, the size of your property and the primary purpose of the wind break are critical variables. Many of us, especially in cities, refer to row-form tree and shrub plantings as wind breaks when what we really mean is privacy screen. This is fine because even a single, dense row of arborvitae provides some degree of protection from wind and snow drift in town. Protecting buildings and tender landscapes in rural areas, however, is a more significant undertaking.

ISU guidelines for farmstead windbreaks are now being revised, but according to Jesse Randall, ISU Extension forester, best practice is to plant at least five consecutive rows of single species trees or shrubs (rather than mixing varieties within a single row). Your innermost row should be 50 feet from any building, and he recommends a moderately sized conifer such as white cedar. The next row should be a larger conifer, such as spruce, pine, fir or larch. When selecting conifers, keep in mind a few simple facts: the bluer the needles on a spruce, the more susceptible it is to disease; larch is also deciduous and will lose needles in the fall; Scotch pine is particularly susceptible to pine wilt; and five-needled pines seem to have the fewest diseases.

Row three should be a hardwood (deciduous) tree. There are innumerable options here, but the best are maple, oak, linden, elm, honey locust or Kentucky coffee tree. If you have the rare Eastern Iowa property not deer-ridden, consider shagbark hickory. It’s a beautiful, straight, fast grower that also provides food for humans and wildlife. No more susceptible to deer damage than other hardwoods, it’s just difficult to find nursery stock bigger than a 36-inch twig because it puts down such a dramatic tap root.

The outermost two rows should be shrubs. Shrubs provide the most immediate gratification because they tend to grow faster and exhibit mature behaviors (such as fruiting and flowering) in a few years. Lilacs are a dependable and popular choice. You may also want to consider a fruiting shrub, like highbush cranberry, wild plum, or aronia bush, which produces a berry considered the newest super fruit (also called acai).

Tree rows should be 25 feet apart, shrub rows 15 feet. If planting a row of shrubs next to one of conifers, also leave 25 feet.

These guidelines may be adjusted according to the size of your property by using a formula outlined in ISU publication Pm-1716 (available at Extension.iastate.edu). Are you one of the aforementioned urban dwellers who lost mature arborvitae in the middle of a like row due to the drought? Your best option for repair is to contact a professional landscaping service who may be able to remove and replace it without jeopardizing the surrounding trees. Get more than one opinion, however, because even with professional assistance, this may not be possible.

EVENTS:

The Linn County Master Gardener Garden Walk will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Explore five diverse Linn County Master Gardener gardens that will inspire you with ideas you can apply to your own garden or landscape or simply provide you the opportunity to tour beautiful private gardens.

Gardens will include ornamental grasses, conifers, vegetables, perennials, containers, raised beds, prairie, water features and more.

Admission is $5 per adult or $10 per family.

Start at any of the gardens on the walk:

McWherter Garden, 1610 Timberland Dr. NW, Cedar Rapids. The McWherter shade/woodland garden is an artistic presentation of plants that include more than 1,000 varieties of hostas along with perennials and tropicals.

Granger House Museum Garden, 970 10th St., Marion. The Granger House Museum gardens consist of three beds featuring a mixture of vegetables, perennials and annuals commonly planted by 19th century households.

Stewart Farm Garden, 298 Martelle Rd., Martelle. The Stewart’s farm garden began as an English cottage garden, reflecting the six years they lived in Britain. The surrounding acres now include a shade garden for bird watching, a floral cutting garden, a 3/4-acre restored Iowa prairie, a vegetable garden that includes four raised beds, and areas for production of fruits and vegetables preserved for year-round family use.

Dvorak Garden, 206 Candlestick Dr., Mount Vernon. The Dvorak gardens include an eclectic mix of old and new, perennials and annuals, sun and shade, many of which have been selected to attract birds and butterflies. There also are a traditional vegetable garden, herbs, grapes and berries.

McKinstry Garden, 408 B Ave. NE, Mount Vernon. A lovingly tended garden will welcome you at the McKinstry home. Peace and tranquillity prevail as you follow pathways through the garden rooms created in the perimeter of a city lot. The garden incorporates an interesting assortment of perennials, shrubs and trees. Color and texture balance the garden’s beauty throughout the seasons.

Questions on gardening, land use or local foods? Contact Michelle Kenyon Brown, community ag programs manager at Linn County Extension, mkenyonb@iastate.edu