John Howell Memorial Park facts for kids
John Howell Memorial Park is a fun 2.8-acre park located in the Virginia Highland neighborhood of Atlanta. It's a great green space for everyone to enjoy!
History of the Park
This park has an interesting story! It was built on land where 11 houses once stood. In the mid-1960s, there was a big plan to build a major highway called Interstate 485 right through this area. The park's location would have been an exit ramp for this highway.
However, many people in the community, including residents of Virginia-Highland, didn't want the highway built. They worked very hard to stop the project. Thanks to their efforts, the I-485 highway was never constructed.
After the highway plan was stopped, the land that had been bought for the road was sold off. In 1988, this special park officially opened!
In the early 1980s, a group called the Virginia Highland Civic Fund, Inc. was created. They helped plan and develop the park. Many people from the neighborhood shared their ideas for what the park should look like. Other groups, like the Living AIDS Memorial Park Project and Volleyball Atlanta, also helped raise money and offered technical support.
In 1989, the park was named after a local hero, John Howell. He lived in Virginia-Highland and was a very active leader in the fight against the highway. John Howell sadly passed away in 1988 after an illness, and the community decided to name the park in his honor to remember his important work.
A local landscape design company, Peter Frawley & Associates, helped put all the community's ideas together. In 1993, the city of Atlanta approved the final design for the park. It took about ten years of fundraising and construction, led by Jerry Bright and Rick Porter, to complete this wonderful community space.
What You'll Find at the Park
John Howell Memorial Park has several cool features, moving from one side to the other:
- Volleyball Courts: These are some of the oldest sand volleyball courts in Atlanta, installed way back in 1982! You can find out more about them from the Virginia Highland Volleyball Association.
- Cunard Memorial Playground: This is a children's playground that was opened in 2004. It's a special place honoring Lisa, Max, and Owen Cunard, who were neighborhood residents.
- Phoenix Sculpture: You'll see a beautiful wrought iron sculpture of a phoenix. The phoenix is a mythical bird that rises from ashes, and it's a symbol of the City of Atlanta, showing how the city rebuilt itself after challenges. A plaque explaining the park's history was added here in 2000.
- Circular Pathway: There's a pathway paved with special bricks. People could buy these bricks to help support the park's upkeep, and each brick has a message or name on it.
Along Virginia Avenue, you'll also notice eleven granite columns. Each column has the address of one of the houses that used to stand on this land before the park was created. It's a way to remember the past of this special place.
