Sweltering heat aside, Riverview Park Heritage Day and the grand opening of the Chapel Shelter went really well last weekend. It was so great to hear from all the people who had used the building in the past for weddings, family reunions, and company parties. “It never looked like THIS,” most of them said. People seem to really appreciate the restoration and the building’s historic charm.
The weekend was filled with all the things that define the Parks Conservancy’s projects: on Friday we had a group of about 25 volunteers from Deloitte who worked for six hours in the 90+ degree temperatures getting the area ready for Saturday’s ceremony. They mulched and weeded all the flowerbeds by the building, pulled garlic mustard on the hillsides, and planted new natives and built deer exclosures from fallen tree limbs to protect the new plants. On Saturday we had many of the project partners out to celebrate with us: Mayor Ravenstahl, Senator Jim Ferlo, Councilwoman Darlene Harris, and lots of others. There was food and entertainment, and the Chapel Shelter offered some much-needed shade for everyone to cool down after watching the Heritage Day parade. Good feelings all around.
I put together a little slideshow of the Chapel Shelter’s progress from the early 1900s all the way up to today to illustrate all the elements that go into a Parks Conservancy capital project. Check that out here. I hope you get a chance to stop by and check out the new, improved Chapel Shelter for yourself soon!
