Historic Fourth Ward Park

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Credit: Darcy Kiefel

Atlanta's historic Old Fourth Ward has a growing population, one of the city's highest rates of children living in poverty, and a desperate need for parks. It also had an area that suffered serious flooding after storms. The city was considering costly underground piping when a better solution emerged from the community. Why not channel the storm water into a manmade lake that would become the central feature of a new park? The Trust for Public Land purchased several properties to help the city create the 35-acre park, which broke ground in October 2008. In June2010, the park opened the first 17 acres including a playground and water-play feature, an outdoor theater, and the city's first skateboard park.

This is one of many projects we have completed for the BeltLine, a developing 22-mile corridor of parks, trails, and transit encircling downtown. In 2010, a member of the community, Kit Sutherland, was honored as a Cox Conserves Heroes finalist for her leadership in this project with the Fourth Ward Alliance.