Last year, we wrote a series of articles telling the history of the Turner Station community in Dundalk. We had recently acquired a half-acre site there and were raising money to pay a Morgan Landscape Architecture student to develop a design for a park. The articles described a place “born in an out-of-the-way spot, before racial integration and as a direct consequence of racial prejudice,” a neighborhood with many wrongs in need of righting. That fact is borne out by Maryland’s Park Equity Mapper, which shows the great need for parks in Turner Station as revealed in the map below.
With the help of so many of YOU and our excellent partners, the Turner Station Conservation Teams, we were able to hire a Morgan student, Kimberly Young. She worked all summer with the Turner Station Community on a beautiful design for what they are calling Chestnut Street Park. Shown below, it includes a pollinator garden, bayscape meadow, vegetable garden, memorial brick patio, trail, and gathering space.
NeighborSpace then used the student’s drawing to pursue a grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust to build the park. I’m pleased to tell you that we recently got that grant in the amount of $34,070! But, like so many grants that we are awarded, it will cover the cost of things that are green (e.g., trees, flowers, meadows) but not the cost of things that aren’t (e.g., trail surfaces, benches). Please make a tax deductible gift today to help us complete Chestnut Street Park this summer!