Monday, March 8, 2010
Around Town / Phillips Lock Two Park: A Review
Posted by Betsy Phillips on Mon, Mar 8, 2010 at 10:54 AM
In short:
Location: Way out at the end of Pennington Bend.
Crowds: Minimal
Approximate Age of Patrons: Late 20s, mid 30s
Topics of Conversation: "Have you been here before?" "No, I had no idea this awesome park was here."
Stray Dogs Seen: None
Types of Vehicles in Parking Lots: Just mine, but a couple of SUVs drove by.
Perceived Safety: High
Number of Gunshots Heard: None
Dog Friendliness: Your dog will love all the free "treats."
Number of pitbulls sighted: Mine
Accessibility: Pretty good (extra points awarded because one of the picnic tables is set up so a person in a wheelchair can use it).
Incorporation of Local History: Very, very, very poor.
Recommended Patrons: History buffs, children, photographers, boaters, people who like to watch the river roll by.
I first became even aware of this park because of this story in The Scene. Until then, I had no idea it existed. And I used to live over that way. The dog and I used to regularly walk Two Rivers Park.
The other woman at the park lived in the neighborhood, and she didn't even know about it.
But holy cow!
I don't even know where to start with how charming this park is. It's small, and nestled right in the bend of the river. There's a boat ramp and the absolute cutest playground. The equipment is all boat-themed and looks new and in great shape. (Now I wonder if I should have been paying attention to how all playground equipment is themed. Is it all matched to its park?) Oh, and if your kid tells you he lost his notebook somewhere, there's one at the park.
The view of the river is fantastic and unobstructed by trees. There's plenty of seating so
There's plenty of parking, and with the exception of the dramatic drop-off down to the river, the park is flat and easy to navigate.
It's not exactly easy to tell where the park's boundaries are, because people have cut and pulled back the fence. But if you see what looks like the edge of the park, I think it probably is, regardless of what openings appear to let you go farther.
As Lyda Phillips points out, the incorporation of local history is pretty non-existent. But if you know already what you're looking at, it's really cool.
The neighborhood seems very safe. I got lost trying to get to the park (and, embarrassingly enough, leaving the park) and I saw a handful of cop cars parked in front of houses, so you'd have to be pretty ballsy to cause trouble in a neighborhood where a bunch of police officers live.
My dog was very tickled by the park, but I'm not sure if that's because the park is particularly dog-friendly or just that she was able to snack on quite a bit of goose poop while I was distracted with taking pictures of all the cool buildings. I'm going to say that this is a park your dog will be very happy with, but one that you will not be happy your dog is happy about.
Speaking of geese, we saw a ton of birds -- geese, hawks, regular old birds. And there are really nice trees. A couple of the outbuildings are in use, and I had a good laugh at the "Narc Field Day" signs. Do they train narcotics officers there? Hold picnics for snitches? Who knows?
I agree with the other Phillips that it would be awesome if the house could be saved and made into some kind of museum. The park is so charming and the house is just sitting there, ready to be put back into use.
Still, this is very much a park worth seeking out.
Comments (8)
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Yes, it's a nice park. I live directly across the river in Neelys Bend and visited one day out of curiosity. It is mighty hard to get to, I got lost too. :(
Keep up the good work!
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I have been going to this park since the early 60s. It use to be a real treat to go to. Back then there were folks living in the house because we played with the children that lived there. A wonderful place to spend a Saturday afternoon.
Oh, who were the people in the house? Were they connected with the lock or the park?
Some of my fondest memories are riding in my dads old Duster down the dirt road to get to this park. This park has always been a favorite of mine thru the years. During the 70s it was the only playground/ park for the doneslon area. the old slide was soooo tall. . i wish it still had the old rickety playground equipment, but still good nonetheless. SO GLAD theyve revitalized it!
No. There's a weird structure left over (you can see part of it here), but the lock is long gone.
There was once two separate homes on the property. My grandfather was the lock master for many years and my dad grew up in the homes. The rock benches from the photos appears to be taken from the front porch steps of one of those homes. My grandfather remained lock master up until the completion of the Old Hickory damn were he was scheduled to take over as lock master.
