Monday, September 20, 2010
Phillips Reservoir Park: A Review
Posted by Betsy Phillips on Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 5:53 AM
- There are two of these weird huts at the park.
Location: Off 8th Avenue South, across from Grimey's
Size of Park: Surprisingly Large
Crowds: Small
Approximate Age of Patrons: 20s & 30s
Topics of Conversation: "Why does it smell so strongly of chlorine here?"
Stray Dogs Seen: None
Types of Vehicles in Parking Lots: None
Perceived Safety: Medium Low
Number of Gunshots Heard: None
Dog Friendliness: High
Number of pitbulls sighted: Just mine
Accessibility: Low, unless you come in from the Hillside Avenue entrance, and, even then, not great
Incorporation of Local History: You'll be surprised to learn it's very, very low
Recommended Patrons: History buffs who come previously equipped with knowledge, people who like hills, fans of strange park structures
- A sad Battle of Nashville casualty.
But this park is surprisingly huge and surprisingly beautiful. I think I love it a little bit. Don't get me wrong. It has issues. For one, the sidewalks throughout the park seem to start and stop based solely on the whim of some drunken park designer. Like he started drawing where one should go, got distracted, and finished drawing where it should go, but never bothered to check to make sure the two sidewalks were connected.
And I think they've had some problems with people driving through the park, because there are all these chains and logs blocking the pathways. But your dog, if you should bring one, will have a great time climbing over and under these.
And there's graffiti, and we saw something that looked suspiciously like a drug deal, and there was a lot of trash every place and someone appeared to be living under one of the trees and the slide at the playground looked faded and sad. And the weird huts are crumbling. And you can't actually see the reservoir from the park. And it smelled oddly like chlorine by the basketball hoops.
And the incorporation of history is so poor I was actually shocked that the ghosts of Civil War soldiers don't stand on the street with signs protesting.
But ... but ... but ...
My god, this is a lovely and charming park. It's very generously sized. It has excellent trees. Except for the weird fading on the slide, the playground equipment looked to be in good shape. The playground also sits in such a way in the landscape that you can hear the laughter of children all over the park, which is really pleasant. And there are all these old stone stairs wherever you look, so it's fun to imagine what the park must have looked like if you came into it off of Beech back in the day.
- One of two sets of basketball courts.
It's a park in need of some interpretive signage. I mean, shoot, okay, so the top of the hill was the location of Blockhouse Casino. But what does that mean? Was it a fortified mess hall? Just the third blockhouse (except wouldn't that be Charley?)? A place for gambling? A fort named after a guy named Casino? Who knows? The Battle of Nashville Preservation Society guys say we don't even know where for sure it was on the hill.
And it was the site of an impressive disaster in 1912, when the reservoir burst and sent 25 million gallons of water flooding into the city. But there's nothing I saw at the park to tell you that. It'd be cool if they had something similar to the signage at the spot of the Dutchman's Curve wreck.
Still, even with all of the drawbacks, I really like this park. I'm not sure what, exactly, I expect a city park to be like, but this felt like a city park to me. I could hear the noises of the city. I had excellent views of things south of me (which, I bet, is why the Union loved it). And, at the same time, it was a surprising respite from the city, a little un-city space, with little surprises tucked away in it.
It invites you to wander and contemplate and chase your dog a little and it's nice.
I don't know. I just liked it. Even with all the drawbacks, I still felt it was a great park. I'll be honest, I'm going to have to think some about what I experience as a great park. I used to think it was that a park was well-kept and that it had signage to help you know what you were looking at and that it was easy to navigate and, I don't know, that I'd just be able to go down a checklist (such as the one at the beginning of this post) and the safest, best-cared-for parks would be the "best."
But I think I'm wrong about what makes a park a good park to me. Using my own criteria, this should be a park I feel kind of "meh" about. It didn't feel particularly safe. There's no good signage. It needs a lot of work. But I love this park and I hope you go and love it too.
I'm just not sure why.
Comments (6)
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"I think I love it a little bit."... "this is a lovely and charming park."... "I really like this park."... "I don't know. I just liked it."... "I love this park"
That's fantastic!
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Ha, I was just thinking the same thing upon re-reading it. Oh, well, they can't all be winners.
We've been giving directions to Grimey's for 6 years now, using Reservoir Park as a reference and in all that time I've only had one person on the phone be aware of the park. So thanks for spreading the word and thanks for using Grimey's as a reference to Reservoir Park!
I've read a few accounts that as late as the 60s you could still go up those stone steps on 8th Ave right up to the walls of the reservoir. It's a shame security concerns have taken that away from us. There's a beautiful old red brick house on top of the reservoir that houses controls for the mechanical systems. I used to be able to see it from my office window at Vandy, and you can just barely make out its outline from Fort Negley. With a pair of binoculars you could get a decent view.
Some neighbors in District 17 did recently make an attempt to clean up the old fountain at the base of the hill and turn it into a planter or something. A shame it wasn't maintained and no longer functions as a fountain.
I wish I could even find a good picture of that gatehouse on the reservoir - it's so hard to see from outside the security fence.
Pics from the cleanup brandonvalentine mentioned: http://www.southnashvillelife.com/2010/05/…
dotsandlines: These are the best photos I could find, and they're not that great:
http://freepages.nostalgia.rootsweb.ancest…
http://freepages.nostalgia.rootsweb.ancest…
