FRIENDS OF LINCOLN PARK INC
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Mission Statement
Friends of Lincoln Park Mission Statement Friends of Lincoln Park’s mission is to ensure the complete restoration of historic Lincoln Park, Portland’s first and oldest municipal park (1866), to its original design and condition in accordance with the Landscape Rehabilitation Plan, prepared by Mohr & Seredin Landscape Architects, and with the support and participation of the City of Portland.
About This Cause
Friends of Lincoln Park LoveLincolnPark.org About Lincoln Park: Lincoln Park is Portland's first publicly-owned green space: the city bought the burnt-out parcel of land the park sits on after the Great Fire of 1866 leveled much of the area. Originally intended merely to serve as a firebreak, Lincoln Park soon became a cultural hub of the city. Citizens and visitors both enjoyed the park's refreshing fountain and shady elm trees, which provided solace and relaxation in the center of the city. Postcards of Lincoln Park were common souvenirs of visitors to Portland. For decades, a farmers' market was held in the park every Saturday morning from early spring to late fall as children splashed in the fountain. By the 1960s, disease had destroyed Portland's iconic elm trees, and Lincoln Park's towering shade trees were not spared. In 1970, the eastern quarter of the park was torn up to make way for the widening of Franklin Arterial. Pedestrians coming from Portland's India Street and Munjoy Hill neighborhoods were thus cut off from the rest of the city – and from the park. The years passed, and the park languished – its pavement crumbling and unsafe, its Parisian fountain broken and barely functional, its wrought-iron fences rusted, bent, and broken. Despite being next door to both City Hall and the Cumberland County Courthouse, the park decayed into a place people walked quickly past, or ignored altogether. About Friends: In 2013, the Friends of Lincoln Park was formed with the mission of restoring Lincoln Park to its original condition, with the participation and support of the City of Portland. Over the last three years, we obtained funding from several organizations and foundations which allowed us to contract with professional conservators and landscape architects to develop a comprehensive Master Plan for the revitalization of the park. With this plan now complete, and with the approval of the City of Portland's Historical Preservation Board, the time has come to carry it out. About the Fountain Project: The first phase of the plan calls for the restoration of the fountain, as it is the park's most imperiled fixture. Originally cast in Paris in 1870 and installed in Lincoln Park in 1871, the fountain is one of only three such fountains known to have come to America. Our “Fountain Basin and Plumbing Reconstruction Plan,” prepared by Portland-based Mohr & Seredin Landscape Architects, defines the reconstruction and restoration process of the fountain's stone pedestal and its surrounding granite basin to their original specifications, and details upgrades to the fountain's plumbing to modern energy- and water-efficiency standards. The cast iron fountain itself will be rebuilt and preserved according to our “Cast Iron Conservation and Restoration Plan,” crafted by internationally-known sculpture conservator Jonathan Taggart of Georgetown, Maine. Completing this plan will conserve the fountain for generations to come. People Served by this Project: The restoration of Lincoln Park will serve not only Portland's 66,000 residents, but also countless visitors to the city. A renewed Lincoln Park will particularly benefit residents of the India Street and Munjoy Hill neighborhoods, whose pedestrian access to both the park and the rest of the city was blocked by the widening of Franklin Arterial. We are already seeing greater interest in – and pedestrian traffic through – Lincoln Park as a result of our efforts. Several outdoor concerts and other events in the park have been planned and, the inaugural installation of TEMPOart's temporary public art was unveiled in the northeastern corner of the park on June 3rd of this year: “American Dream,” by Judith Hoffman, attracted a large crowd at its opening and continues to engage appreciators. Returning the fountain to good working order can only further increase the park's usage and help to reestablish Lincoln Park as the community hub that it once was. To that end, we feel that this “newly-restored look” will surely motivate further private funding to complete our ongoing mission to renew the entire park with remaining benches, trees and major fence repair. Time Frame for this Project: The Portland City Manager recently allocated $250,000 in capital improvement funds to completely repave the walkways within Lincoln Park. The city will use historically-accurate bituminous concrete to restore the walkways, with the work scheduled to begin spring 2017. However, it is vital that we coordinate the re-founding and restoration of the fountain's basin and underlying plumbing with the city's walkway restoration – once the repaving is complete, the opportunity to re-plumb and re-found the fountain's basin will be gone. For the first time in decades, we have the chance to completely rehabilitate all of the major interior fixtures of Lincoln Park at the same time, and we're doing everything we can to make that happen. Lincoln Park’s past vision is our future goal.