Selling bricks to rebuild Walnut Park

Petaluma’s Walnut Park was born when the city’s first service club, the Ladies Improvement Club, led by Addie Atwater, demanded that the city founders create a safe place for Petaluma children to play.|

Petaluma’s Walnut Park was born when the city’s first service club, the Ladies Improvement Club, led by Addie Atwater, demanded that the city founders create a safe place for Petaluma children to play.

Now, 140 years later, several Petaluma service clubs are working toward that same end, with an effort to make the park a safer and more beautiful.

The clubs, collectively known as the Petaluma Service Alliance, include three local Rotary chapters, Rotary, Petaluma Valley Rotary and Petaluma Sunrise Rotary; Petaluma Host Lions and 7-11 Lions; Kiwanis and the Elks Lodge. They’ve been working together on local projects for the past several years, including a remodel of the Old Adobe Developmental Services (OADS) center on Second Street and a revamp of the garden at the nonprofit Petaluma Bounty.

Walnut Park, which occupies 1.46-acre at the corner of Fourth and D streets, has been host to many community activities in the city, including the Saturday farmers market and Petaluma parades. But it is starting to show signs of wear and tear, said Maureen Frances, who founded the Petaluma Service Alliance and is heading up the park renovation.

“The asphalt has become dangerous, and families and senior citizens have been calling the city asking what to do because they can’t navigate that park,” Frances said.

And as a spot that was designated by the city in 1879 to be a “safe park,” it has been in dire need of repair, Frances explained.

Having started the renovation about a year-and-a-half ago, the service club volunteers have already replaced much of the landscaping and repainted the park benches. The next step is replacing the torn up asphalt with concrete sidewalks.

Currently the clubs are fundraising to accomplish that step. The entire renovation was estimated at $122,000, of which they still have about $45,000 left to raise, Frances said. To do that, the Petaluma Service Alliance is selling commemorative bricks - priced from $150 to $300 in three sizes - that will circle the gazebo in the park.

The city is donating some labor and materials, and some local businesses have expressed interest in volunteering time and help, Frances said.

Other upgrades include possibly painting the historic Brainerd Jones-designed building on the south side of the park, Frances said, and putting stucco on the wall behind the children’s playground, which may include children’s handprints in it.

Roughly 1,300 people belong to the seven clubs within the Petaluma Service Alliance, which each typically meet weekly or bi-weekly. The alliance meets as each project needs it, and the Walnut Park renovation has brought the groups together more often as they try to raise the funds for the asphalt-to-concrete conversion. Assuming they can complete their funding effort, Frances said, that part of the renovation will be done in November.

She said she’s happy to see the alliance leading the charge to renovate the park - a spot with long ties to the city’s service clubs, starting with Addie Atwater’s effort to build the park in the first place, and the Lions Club’s installation of the gazebo there in 1927.

“Petaluma is a hugely community-oriented town,” Frances said.

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