Major renovations will begin in mid-2007!
The Friends of Jefferson Square Park have been working on this project for three years in partnership with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS), the Philadelphia Department of Recreation and local residents. Funding for the project is being provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). The Friends hosted meetings with area homeowners and park users with landscape architect Aimee Arceo from PHS to provide significant community input into the final renovation plan.
The 2007 renovations will include:
- Replacement of the park’s 4 interior walkways that connect each corner entrance,
- A new custom-designed, landscaped center circle in the park,
- Replacement of the 5 “street lights” in the park with 20 “pedestrian lights” (like the ones in Rittenhouse Square),
- Replacement of all the park’s benches and wastebaskets,
- Patching the decayed surfaces of the exterior sidewalks,
- Installation of new landscaped drainage trenches into the 3rd and 4th Street sidewalks to bring the park in compliance with new state storm-water run-off requirements.
The renovations compliment other improvements made to Jefferson Square Park through funding obtained by the Friends over the last 5 years:
- Replacement of the cast iron urns at the corner entrances. These historic replicas are almost 5 feet high and weigh several hundred pounds each.
- Power-washing of the park’s historic granite retaining walls and pillars.
- Creation and installation of the corner gardens.
- Restoration of water service to the park.
- Conducted a tree inventory and had professional arborists assess and prune every tree in the park.
- Removal of trees that were either dead or diseased.
- Installation of over 20 new trees in accordance with a professional tree-planting plan designed to restore symmetry to the park and to plant new replacement trees near those nearing the end of their lives.
- Installation of over 1,000 daffodil and tulip bulbs.
- Installation of custom Avenue Banners on poles around the park.