Virtual Groundbreaking Ceremony

Today, Saturday, May 9, 2020, we "officially" broke ground on the restoration of the historic 1868 Park Superintendent's house, our headquarters in Patterson Park! This project is Phase 1 of a two part plan to renovate the white house into a Visitors Center and our offices (Phase 1) and to construct a community programming space and courtyard behind the original structure (Phase 2).

Thank you so much to all of our members, project donors, funders and partners who have made this long-awaited day possible! We look forward to sharing our progress!

For more information on the project and how to lend your support to Phase 2, visit our campaign webpage, https://pattersonpark.com/capitalcampaign.

Enjoy this special video of our “virtual” groundbreaking (and be sure to stay to the end for a special treat)! 

Zoom from Patterson Park!

Click here for free Zoom backgrounds featuring beloved places in Patterson Park!

COVID-19 Park Use Updates

The Friends of Patterson Park is encouraging responsible use of the park using the guidelines and direction of Baltimore City Recreation and Parks and the State of Maryland. Click on this link or the button below for the most recent updates for Patterson Park, both to the current rules and for updates to our schedule. 

What we're up to behind the scenes...advocating for Patterson Park!

The Friends of Patterson Park is one of the largest park Friends group in Baltimore City. With our 20 year history we’re not the oldest, but over the years we’ve been able to build on our strong community support to affect change and to share our work and perspectives in support of all Baltimore City parks.

Here’s what we’re working on inside Patterson Park and around Baltimore City!

INSIDE THE PARK:

• The Flag in the northwest corner of the park. Being in the park and connected to our members lets us respond and support specific park needs. This spring we’ve worked with a Patterson Park neighbor, Jeff Riner, who is advocating for taking care of the flags in the park. He has been willing to research and commit to supporting specific needs. This work will allow us to have extra flags to switch out when the one flying gets weathered, and to ensure that the flags are raised and lowered in a timely way. Our flags are an important link to the park’s history, and to our city and nation’s history and we appreciate the support to make them look their best.

• The Boat Lake. We’ve also been working with Baltimore City Recreation and Parks to follow guidelines in our most recent master plan that call for increased attention and support for the park’s historic boat lake. The master planning process made clear that the lake was more than 5 years overdue for significant dredging. We have continued to call on the city to make this a priority and they have responded. The lake is now scheduled to receive this maintenance work in the coming year. We are participating in planning for this project with representatives from the city concerned with both the lake’s infrastructure and the safe removal of the lake’s invasive species. We will play a key role in communicating plans for the project to the public both on site and through our social media channels.

• The Pagoda. Our next effort will be ensuring the Pagoda is receiving the appropriate level of maintenance over the next few years by working with Baltimore City Recreation and Parks leadership.

• Trash cans. Last year, we received an anonymous donation from a park friend to put towards more than 20 new permanently-installed trashcans in the park! We have the trash cans, and are working with various city departments on installation.

• The Fountain. We were able to secure a new contractor to look at persistent issues have discovered extensive corrosion of the main pipe (along with other issues). Working with Baltimore City and private funders, we hope to move ahead with repairs this spring/summer!

AROUND THE CITY:

• Our Executive Director, Jennifer Robinson, has played a key role in several planning processes, ensuring that the voice of Friends groups is well-represented. Most recently she was on the Steering Committee for Baltimore City Recreation and Park’s REC 2025 strategic planning process. This resulted in a comprehensive plan for the agency that gives direction for their work for the next 5 years. Their report can be reviewed at https://myrec2025.com/plan

• The Friends is also part of several city-wide gatherings of park friends groups. These provide opportunities to share successes and common concerns. Most recently we participated in the planning for a Park Xchange workshop facilitated by the City Parks Alliance, a national park advocacy organization. The goal of this session was to determine how to better support partnerships between Baltimore City Recreation and Parks and park stakeholders. More than 125 people representing local government, foundations, community associations, and park leadership attended.

• We see our efforts in Patterson Park intimately tied to the success and support of our neighboring parks. We are excited to continue our partnership with Banner Neighborhoods to plan and implement programs that highlight the assets (and opportunities!) in other parks in Southeast Baltimore. We’re also working with other organizations, including the Parks and People Foundation, who do important city-wide work.

Latest Updates on the 1865 Fountain

Caring for Patterson Park’s historic and beloved marble fountain (dating to 1865 and located in the northwest corner of the park) is certainly tricky! Here at the Friends, we’ve been working since last year to get the fountain back and operating well. During that time we identified a new contractor to complete an assessment of the fountain’s needs with fresh eyes. They determined there were a variety of issues, with the most serious being the significant corrosion of the main interior pipe. Together we prepared a scope of work and maintenance totaling $40,000 for this year. 

We have worked with our partners at the Southeast CDC to apply for a Spruce Up Grant, and also with Baltimore City Recreation and Parks to receive an allocation of Program Open Space state funds to cover this amount. We are finalizing the paperwork with the city that will allow our contractor to perform the work this spring! 

Additionally, thanks to the Spruce Up grant we’ll also be able to work on the garden areas near the fountain and enhance the area around the Little Free Library in front of our offices. If you’d like more information on the items included in this scope of work, please let us know by emailing Jennifer at Jennifer@pattersonpark.com

(Officially) Kicking off the $2M Campaign

We recently kicked off the public phase of our $2M capital campaign to raise much-needed funds to restore the historic 1868 Park Superintendent’s house in the northwest corner of Patterson Park (our headquarters!) and to construct a brand-new community space and courtyard. On February 12, donors and friends gathered at the Ministry of Brewing to celebrate the halfway milestone in the campaign.

We had several speakers - long-time park friends and volunteers Kevin Peryea and Beth Braun (President of the Butchers Hill Association), and friend and program participant Joyce England, who talked about the dire need for this project and their reasons for supporting it. Two new videos were debuted at the event, including a virtual tour of the newly renovated white house and community space.

Check out photos in the gallery below, and the videos to the right. Lots more info on the campaign, Deepening Roots, Cultivating Community, is available here.

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The Friends of Patterson Park is excited to announce its first-ever capital campaign to raise funding to renovate the historic 1868 Superintendent's House an...

Click to advance. Photo credit Julie Kichline.