Native Meadow Project in Fonticello Park

The mission of the Friends of Fonticello Park is to honor the history of our park while creating a safe, welcoming and nourishing outdoor space for our community and neighbors.

As one of our first major projects, the Friends of Fonticello is fundraising to install a native meadow where the old playground used to be. We need to raise the required funds to pay the growers so they can start growing from seed now in preparation for our October/November planting dates.

We want to create a natural living space in the park. The native meadow will be an educational space, where community members can come to learn about local ecosystem plants, and how they support wildlife and pollinators, increase soil health, and contribute to cleaner waterways. Our programming committee will support seed-sharing projects for neighbors to plant in their yard gardens. Equally as important, this native space will create a diverse and safe habitat for native wildlife. While this project currently only covers approximately 6000 square feet of the park, the long-term goal is to expand the project to as many areas of the park as possible to help create urban rewilding , which includes potential benefits such as attracting indigenous wildlife and “strengthening resilience to climate change, reducing pollution, reversal of biodiversity loss, and healthier resident populations.”

During our September 21, 2022 Friends of Fonticello Park meeting with DPRCF, Deputy Director Shamar Young proposed that the city could begin immediately working on a native meadow in the old playground space. He indicated they would be willing to till and level the area and plant wildflower seeds in that space as part of a large city initiative to become a “Bee City .” While this idea was intriguing, unfortunately, wildflower mixes are only native to the country usually, not the region, therefore, those plants may not thrive in our ecosystem and our insects and wildlife may not be adapted to the wildflowers or benefit from them being planted. While this type of planting would provide some immediate gratification in terms of aesthetics, the Friends of Fonticello Park would rather see this done the right way.

We have met with two local ecotype native plant nursery owners, Bill Shanabruch from Reedy Creek Environmental and Ashley Moulton of Moulton Hot Natives, to create a landscape plan for the native area. They have conducted a site visit and are creating a plant list. They have both committed to growing enough plants from seed for the 6000 square foot area. Ashley has already successfully planted a native meadow at Pine Camp Community Center in the Northside of Richmond. We have submitted our plan for the native meadow to the Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities. They have already tilled and level the land where we will install the meadow. In May, our monthly community workday will use volunteers to lay down black plastic sheeting over the area to solarize the soil and kill off invasive and nonnative species to plant the soil in the fall. Our September and October community workdays will remove the sheeting, spread topsoil and compost, and plant.

The Friends of Fonticello Park currently has enough funding to pay for the materials needed to prepare the land for planting, including the solarization supplies and the additional soil and compost. We have a local artist and arborist who has volunteered to build a natural fence around the space from reclaimed wood from a fallen Elm in the park. Our immediate funding need is to secure the money needed to purchase the plants and install educational signage. Both growers are willing to grow for this project but need us to secure funding before they start growing, as this would be a special “grow” just for our native meadow, and if we were not able to secure funding, it would be an undue burden on their business.

A Bit of Park History

On June 6, 1923, Richmond’s The News Leader reported that “when the city playgrounds open on June 15 for the white children of Richmond, not so much as space for a baseball diamond will be available for the 1,300” black children of the Southside. In that article, Councilperson Carter Jones was quoted as saying there was no greater need in the city at the time, as children on the south side had no space for outdoor play.

The park was established in 1915 after land previously owned by W.G. Taylor was sold off for the development of the current Woodland Heights and Swansboro neighborhoods. Eleven acres of land was set aside for the establishment of a park. In 1924, the park was in danger of being developed until Carter Jones, advocated for the park to be permanently set aside as greenspace for the predominantly black children of Southside. After a lengthy legal battle, the city eventually acquired the park. Since then, the park has seen upgrades, including the installation of a playground, tennis courts, skatepark, and a food forest/community garden. It wasn’t until 1928 that the petition for the acquisition of the land cleared court hurdles and officially became Carter Jones Park.

Between the 1930s and the 1970s, the park saw heavy sports use by local high schools and organized sports leagues. Since that time, unfortunately, the park has fallen victim to a lack of funding, deferred maintenance, blight and violence.

Established in 2020, the Friends advocate for and collaborate with the Richmond Department of Parks, Recreation, and Community Facilities (DPRCF) to maintain and improve the park after years of neglect, deferred maintenance and violence. As a response to the tragic shooting death of nine-year-old Markiya Dickson in May 2019, DPRCF worked with the Timmons Group to develop and gather feedback on a Master Plan for the park. The plan was recommended for approval by the Urban Design Committee and approved by the Planning Commission in May 2020. Funds have already been allocated to install a new playground and the city is working with several businesses to get quotes for other features in the plan, including refurbishing the pavilion and installing a splash pad, both of which are currently unfunded. Additionally, there is $60,000 set aside in the budget for the repair of the basketball and tennis courts.

Unfortunately, in March 2020, the pandemic shut down the movement on updating the park. The playground was closed and some play structures were removed in November 2020 due to safety concerns from previous vandalism. In August 2022, the playground was completely removed. The baseball fields have also been decommissioned and organized sports no longer take place in the park.

In June 2022, neighbors walked through the park to document crumbling infrastructure and multiple safety issues to reinvoke the city’s work on the park. Unfortunately, on September 4, 2022, another act of violence occurred in the park and three teens were shot, luckily with non-life-threatening injuries. This prompted further community frustration about the continued lack of momentum on park improvements.

Our organization is driven by the need for an equitably maintained and safe park that serves the community. Our park is located in a historically black, working-class neighborhood. The Swansboro neighborhood is approximately 70% black with over 50% of the population having a high school degree or less. Nearly 80% of the residents make under the national average income. The neighborhood, and park, are located in a food desert with the nearest grocery store over two miles away from the park. The parks’ food forest and community garden, which hosts a weekly free farm stand have been a vital part of bringing the community into the park and providing nourishment to neighbors. We envision a place where families gather, where community members can come for food, where neighbors meet each other, and where children can learn, play, and grow. As an organization, we are committed to continuing to work collaboratively with the city and community partners to bring a once lively park back from the brink. We are inspired by the resilience of the community and the park, especially in the face of continued gun violence and neglect.

The Friends of Fonticello Park is currently under the fiscal sponsorship of Verdant Richmond while applying for 501c3 status.