Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The city’s Community Development Department is expanding its improvement efforts in Sankey Park beyond restoring the park’s hut to fixing up all of the older structures in the park.
The Parks Board, department Director Carol Lewis and Code Enforcement Officer Byron Wolfsong started looking for historical information about the building, most recently used by Narcotics Anonymous and historically used by the Girl Scouts, among others. As their research progressed, their interest was piqued in the history of the other structures in the park.
They found out that the bandstand, for example, once had a much more elaborate design incorporated into the railings.
They figured it was a good time to begin rejuvenating the entire park, Wolfsong said.
The floor and roof repairs on the hut will cost a total of $6,889 this budget cycle. Additional work will be built into the city budget in the future.
Sankey Hut, as they’ve taken to calling the old Girl Scout building, sparked their efforts. The city has been working inside the structure, trying to save the sagging floor and roof and will eventually remodel it for meetings and community events.
They discovered the park used to have a wading pool, Wolfsong said. It also had a usable community barbecue pit.
“We were planning on renovating that this year, but Sankey Hut was the priority,” Wolfsong said.
They also began looking at the cannon, gazebo and other elements of the park, he said. He since has found out the cannon is a M3 howitzer used during World War II as a lighter alternative to the M2. The model in the park was used in the D-Day Invasion. He would like to find out whether this particular cannon was ever used in battle and then put up a plaque with information about it.
Similarly, the Community Development Department and the Parks Board wants to know more about the rest of the park and asks the public to call with information and especially photos of the park, especially around the time of its creation.
They have searched microfilm archives of The New Era and tapped a number of community sources, including the museum and local historians, for the information they have so far, Wolfsong said. “We know it was owned by a member of the Sankey family, who bought it for $700.”
W.S. Sankey, a councilman for 37 years, purchased the original land for the park and loaned it to the city until the cost was repaid, said Waibel, Sankey’s granddaughter.
Waibel said the park came into being during the 1930s as a WPA project. Riley Thompson designed and built the wooden structures that still stand in the park today.
Green poles were bent to form the shapes and designs that decorated several of the original buildings, Waibel said. “These historic preserved buildings are part of the legacy of early Sweet Home. Time and daily use of many generations have destroyed many of those structures.”
In the early years, all of the playground equipment was handmade and of similar design to those of the buildings, she said.
“I’m looking for more than this,” Wolfsong said. In particular, he is seeking photos, “so we can see what it looked like.”
“We would like to preserve as much information as we can,” he said. As older citizens pass away, that history will be lost. Even now, he said, no one seems to know too much about the park’s history.
“As I’m researching things, I’m finding out more and more about Sweet Home,” he said. “I’m a history nut anyway,” and that’s making this quest even more personal for Wolfsong “with this being so close to home,” he said.
Coming from California, he sees this as an opportunity, he said. In California, much of the history has been lost. The few historic structures left have been turned into museums.
For further information or to provide information or photos to the city, call Lewis at 367-8113 or Wolfsong at 367-4554.