Our Parks need Historic Preservation Too

I have been blessed to enjoy every major public park in Troy. Each is special. I learned to swim at Knick; my son at the South End Pool. I climbed the monkey bars in Beman. My wedding reception was in the pavilion at Prospect park.  I've spent more than a few bucks at Powers Park Flea Markets.  I played baseball at Frear Park and have even golfed a couple of rounds. The history each park carries forward requires her owners – the real citizens of Troy – to tend to their needs attentively. It requires the highest level of stewardship. Groups like the Friends of Prospect Park and Frear Park Conservancy have been showing us the way for many years.

These green spaces and historic structures tell the recreational story of Troy. The 1920’s era Art Deco swimming pool at Prospect is a prominent example of craftsmanship and design from the Roaring ‘20’s. Closed in the mid-1990’s as a cost savings measure, that pool is one of only a few that remained in the US still standing. It’s use as a pool is long past yet the structure could be re-purposed perhaps for skateboarders. What a great way to get the newest generation using, enjoying and appreciating Prospect. The locker area could be rehabbed and that wonderful structure could be put back to good use.

The Arcadia Pavilion’s splendor and beauty are being wasted at Frear Park. It was built as a community-gathering place. City of Troy’s Parks and Recreation Department currently uses the space as a storage facility. The golf course lost its clubhouse years ago when the city chose to lease out that space to a private entity. It has since lost its pro shop too. How grand it would be if the pavilion were to be re-purposed as the course’s 19th Hole and Pro Shop.

She woke a sleeping giant

As a 10-year-old sixth grader at Lansingburgh Elementary School, my attention was focused on family and friends with school being a necessary evil. Although attentive in class, I never did homework. I passed the tests anyway, so saw no need to bother. Homework repulsed me. Homework took me away from my friends. That is until Ms. Kathleen Tivnan (my history teacher) convinced me, that at least for her class, it was worth doing. When I failed to turn in an assignment, she kept me after school. “Write ‘I will do my homework’ 100 times” she would say in her ever eloquent manner. I caved after about a week of this and started to do her homework assignments.

Many of the reading assignments were on ancient Greece. Before long, the stories of the city-states and the gods they honored became enjoyable for me to read. I wasn’t only reading what she told me to, I was checking other history books out as well. The more I read, the more interested I became in current events. I figured, someday these events will be history. Since my parents sheltered me from world events taking place in 1971, (the Vietnam War was still being waged and campus riots seemingly a daily occurrence) I turned to my grandparents. I asked them about events that occurred in their lifetimes like The Great Depression and World War II.  What was history to me was life for them.  How cool it was to learn their lives.  The family historian was born.

Had it not been for Ms. Tivnan’s insistence, my love of history may never have been awakened. Ms. Tivnan woke the sleeping giant. To her I owe my passion for history: my family's and Troy’s in particular. It was this passion for history that made me rail during the Urban desTroyal that occurred here in the ‘70’s. I carry that same passion today. Historic preservation and restoration are necessary, vital. They are keystones. For it is in our history that the real citizens of Troy will find their future.

Time Passes

Time passes,
Memories remain.
Thoughts collide with present times.

You are gone.
Yet you are here.
Never again and ever near.

Stay, Stay live within me.
Love remembers
Times past.