Roanoke’s Elmwood Park – for 100 year it’s been a City park – now it’s getting a facelift!

You may have heard about the City of Roanoke’s plans to provide much needed renovations to Elmwood Park.  We encourage you to share your vision of the future of Elmwood Park and get more details at the City of Roanoke’s web site. This historic urban park has such a rich and vibrant history and has played such an important part in the lives of so many Roanoker’s we thought it would be nice to share some interesting information and history.

In addition to being downtown Roanoke’s only major green space, Elmwood Park is currently the home for at least 17 annual events, and is utilized for these events an average of 54 days each year for these activities.  These festivals and events collectively attract over 120,000 people to downtown Roanoke each year.  They include Festival in the Park, Party in the Park,  Big Lick Blues Festival, Microfestivus, Henry Street Festival, Strawberry Festival, Blues Ridge Blues Festival, Movies in the Park, Pride in the Park, Latino Festival, Festival of India, Local Colors and many others of various sizes and types.

So as you might imagine EventZone and other event organizers enthusiastically support renovations to the park that include updated and improved features and design.  But we also are thrilled that the direction this project is taking stresses keeping this space a multi use park with a vision for many types of gathers and uses.  The renovation of Elmwood Park can serve Roanoke on many levels and be the next big boost to downtown development.  It’ll generate greater activity, revenue for downtown businesses, the city and other organizations and continue to be a focal point for social gathers and recreation for downtown and the region – as it has for so many years.  It’s our hope that it will become an improved festival/concert venue as well with improved comfort features for the thousands that attend!

Let’s look a little closer at the park’s history while many are seriously considering it’s future.

Early History
In the early 19th century, the Tosh family owned 200 acres, which included the property that became Elmwood Park. In the mid-1830s, Jonathan Tosh built the house which contemporary Roanoker’s know as the Terry home, for the last family that owned the property. Thomas Tosh, the son of Jonathan, sold the property to John T.J. White in 1841, who in turn sold it to Col. William Madison Peyton in 1846.

Col. Peyton named the estate “Elmwood” and is credited with planting the elms and many other species including the Japanese magnolia, still alive and blooming today. The tree was a gift from Commodore Matthew C. Perry, who brought it from Japan around 1855. Sold to a Benjamin Dennis in 1858, then to Benjamin Tinsley later that year, the property was eventually purchased by Mr. Peyton Leftwich Terry. After the death of his widow in 1910, the city purchased what is now Elmwood Park for $150,000 in 1911. This fulfilled a long-standing goal of the Woman’s Civic Betterment Club (WCBC) which was given a few rooms in the Terry house. The WCBC is the same group that commissioned urban planner John Nolen’s Remodeling Roanoke, a plan which included recommendations to integrate the facilities for city government and services with beautiful public spaces. Elmwood Park is Roanoke’s third park. It is predated by Highland Park created in 1901 and Melrose Park of 1907.

The Park Changes
In the 1920s and 1930s the Roanoke Valley Garden Club created rose beds with more that 100 varieties and planted trees and shrubbery. As of the mid-1970s, only a few boxwoods remained. The stone wall around the property and the iron gate gave way to street widening, and most of this early landscaping was lost. In those early days, as in the park upgrades of the early 1980s, garden clubs and individual citizens donated funds to purchase much of the parks trees and shrubs.

Accompanying the library addition of 1982, many changes came to Elmwood Park. The Mayor’s Monument was moved from its original location at Church and Fifth Streets to the corner of Elm and Williamson in the park. Erected in 1892 by P.L. Terry and F.J. Kimball, president of the Norfolk & Western, it was an “Industrial Monument to mark progress of the City of Roanoke.” It was cleaned and a new star pedestal added in 2008.

A “Breathing Space” for Roanokers
Since the park’s creation it has been a gathering place and a green space. In 1913 an editor for the World News wrote “People of Roanoke bought Elmwood for a park, a playground and a breathing space.” In the early decades tennis courts brought in crowds for tournaments, as did the bandstand for weekend concerts. There was even a pond with the requisite ducks. In the 1910s and 1920s there were numerous large gatherings, often celebrations with parades which culminated with speeches in the park attended by thousands of citizens. Open air concerts began again with Event Zone, in 2003, continuing the Easter Seals Summer Concert Series (renamed Party in the Park). And into the present the park is busy from late spring through fall with a variety of cultural events for all ages and interests including festivals, concerts, and film showings.

Developing Urban Center Looks to Park’s Open Space
These events created strong support for maintaining the parks open spaces, in sharp contrast to the voices in support of development. Since its inception, its open spaces have invited development. In 1912 and 1913 there were proposals that the park be the site of a new municipal building and jail. In 1947, a report of City Council’s War Memorial Committee suggested making the park a war memorial. In 1953, the year the Academy of Music was razed, 1955 and again in 1961, it was suggested that an auditorium or arena be erected in the park. In the late 1970s there were proposals to move the library to the old post office building and establish a cultural center, including the Historical Society and art museum in Elmwood Park. The existing library was built in 1952, with an addition built in 1982. The old Terry house in the park, the city’s first public library, was torn down in 1964.

Over the years Letters to the Editor, and newspaper articles and editorials have debated the potential costs and benefits of maintaining the park in its current configuration, moving or keeping the library, and whether to create a cultural center and amphitheater. This is a debate which continues in one form or another to this day.

In the April 1985 dedication of the park makeover, Mayor Noel Taylor, who previously had been a member of the library advisory board, stated “Elmwood Park today is a tribute to the vision of the Roanoker’s who supported its purchase by the city in 1911.” The history of Elmwood Park in many ways reflects the inherent challenges Roanoker’s face as the city and its citizens balance shared values of pride of heritage with modernity while preserving green and open civic spaces in a busy urban center.

Now accepting merchant vendor applications for SunTrust Big Lick Blues Festival- Oct.2

The 4th annual SunTrust Big Lick Blues Festival will take place October 2, 2010 in Elmwood Park, downtown Roanoke, Virginia. For the past three years, this all day event has drawn large crowds from all over the east coast. From now until September 22, EventZone will be accepting vendor applications for product/service, craft artisans and goods and product sampling.

This is a unique opportunity because this event has grown to become a highly anticipated festival every year and unlike other events, Big Lick Blues will not have rigid guidelines for vendors (approval based upon application review). Fabulous local restaurants cooking up ribs and BBQ, People’s Choice awards, Rib eating contest and great blues and jazz music are just some of the elements that make this event so popular.

This year SunTrust Big Lick Blues is excited to bring Grammy winning performers like Jimmie Vaughan, Teresa James and John Lee Hooker Jr. to the Roanoke Valley. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to have prime space during an event that brings over 3,000 people to Elmwood Park.

Click here to print your merchant vendor application or e-mail amanda@eventzone.org.

If you have any questions or need additional information please do not hesitate to contact Amanda Gaylor.