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The City of St. Helens has received a $2,500 Oregon Parks Foundation Fund grant from the Oregon Community Foundation to enhance signage for trails and historical points in the city’s parks and nature preserves.
The St. Helens Parks and Trails Commission will work with the city’s Parks Division to create a list of improvements for consideration. Parks staff will then prioritize and purchase signage for installation in local parks. The city has until February 2025 to complete the project.
Civic Pride Park is one park which has previously been identified for improvement since no signage currently exists there. The park can be accessed via a gravel lot from South 12th Street near Eisenschmidt Pool and a paved upper lot with access from Columbia Boulevard that is shared with nearby Lewis and Clark Elementary School.
About Civic Pride Park
After it was first established in 1939, the St. Helens Parks Commission reorganized in 1955 and began looking for additional park spaces in St. Helens. For over four decades, there had only been one park within the city limits. Almost immediately, the space adjacent to the swimming pool was identified as a potential park site and plans began slowly moving forward. Planning continued for the next two years about what to do with the space that was full of weeds, blackberries, rocks, and an unused road. The city owned three lots at the site, but additional space needed to be purchased from the school district and lots of work would be needed to turn this rocky and overground piece of land into a park. It was decided that it would be too expensive to blast through the rock, so lots of fill dirt would be needed, and flowers and shrubs would be planted around the rock mounds.
In 1957, a local women’s club began to ponder the idea of taking on this massive undertaking as part of a national Community Achievement competition sponsored by Sears. A Community Achievement Council was organized and headed by a local woman named Lucille Holbrook. The council noted that “there seemed to be little community spirit or civic pride” in St. Helens and decided that “civic pride is the responsibility of everyone.” The group entered the competition, which involved improving and beautifying your community, and got 51 different community groups to join the effort - including the Kiwanis, Shriners, and Optimist clubs, along with the St. Helens City Council, Columbia County, St. Helens School District, and other church and community groups.
The Community Achievement Council took on eight park projects around St. Helens, and the area adjacent to the swimming pool was adopted by three women’s groups - the St. Helens Woman’s Club, Junior Woman’s Club, and the Zenith Club. A plan was presented to the City Council, and work began in September 1957. Much of the work of developing the early park was completed by volunteers over three Sundays. On the first Sunday, thirteen men and seven women showed up, including city employees, city council members, school teachers, local loggers, the L.C. Hall truck line, and Watters Concrete. The women provided hamburgers, chili, pie, and coffee, while the city donated the gas, oil, and trucks. Fifty loads of dirt from six miles away were unloaded on the site.
The county donated the equipment and supplies on the second Sunday, and 90 loads of dirt and over 400 yards of fill were unloaded. On the third Sunday, the Kiwanians laid a flagstone walk through the park that is still visible today. It was estimated that the volunteers saved the city over $3,000 over those three Sundays of work. The city took over the maintenance of the park, which was eventually fenced and included picnic tables, benches, a drinking fountain, a stone fireplace and barbeque, swings, a merry-go-round, and a wading pool. It remained a popular gathering and picnic spot for many years. By January 6, 1958, this new park space was being called Civic Pride Park. Interestingly enough, St. Helens won the National Community Achievement Competition later that year and received national recognition and a $10,000 prize from Sears. There is still a sign along the highway that notes this accomplishment.
This information is provided thanks to research by the Columbia County Historical Society and Museum Association.
About Oregon Community Foundation
Oregon Community Foundation (OCF) was founded in 1973 with a big mission: to improve the lives of all Oregonians through the power of philanthropy. In partnership with donors and volunteers, OCF works to strengthen communities in every county in Oregon through research, grantmaking, and scholarships. In 2022, OCF distributed more than $180 million, supporting 3,500 grantees and awarding more than 3,000 scholarships. With OCF, individuals, families, businesses, and organizations create charitable funds that meet the needs of diverse communities statewide. 2023 marks OCF’s 50th anniversary. Since its founding, OCF has distributed more than $2.2 billion in community investments, including grants to 10,850 nonprofits and 53,375 scholarships to students. Individuals, families, businesses and organizations can work with OCF to create charitable funds to support causes important to them. To learn more, please visit: oregoncf.org
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