Delano Park

Park was created in 1887, as part of a master plan to "re-invent" the City of Decatur,. The city created the "Decatur Land Improvement and Furnace Company" for this specific purpose. The company employed a landscape architect named Nathan Franklin Barrett to design a whole new city that had been ravished by a Yellow Fever epidemic and the Civil War. The park was designed to be the focal point of the entire plan. The park, named after then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was dedicated in the 1930s by Roosevelt himself. The land was donated to the city of Albany as part of the New Deal which included a large plan to develop the poverty ridden city. The park remained mostly a solitary attraction on the fringe of downtown as the only large park in town during that era. This changed in the mid 1950s when the new Decatur High School constructed a new school building to replace an overcrowding "Riverside" High School building. Delano Park Rose GardenPlans are currently underway to create many more attractions for the park. The group, "Friends of Delano," are leading an effert to add historical trails, gardens, higher levels of safety, and a way to connect the western portion with the middle portion of the park. So far, funding is in order, and the attractions are in the planning stage. The historic "Delano Rose Garden" was re-created between the years of 2005 and 2006 as an exact restructuring of the former rose garden that once stood as part of the original Delano plan. The garden had been none existent for decades but was finally rebuilt in junction with the revitalization. The need for a way to connect the western portion to the middle portion is a high priority for the city. 6th Avenue (US 31) successfully cuts the park in two, effectively depriving the western portion of much needed attention. A historical trail is expect to be built, beginning in the eastern portion, traveling through the middle portion and eventually connecting with the western portion in an attempt to spur more traffic at that portion. The trail is also supposed to allow for a safer crossing of 6th Avenue as it is one of the busiest streets inside Decatur. [edit] See also Decatur, Alabama