(This column was first published in the Tallahassee Democrat on July 30, 2017. The closed dog park is still open at E. Peck Greene Park.)

It seems fitting that Tallahassee’s latest dog park has been created at E. Peck Greene Park, one of seven downtown park chains along Park Avenue.

Because it was Greene who designed the chain of downtown parks 80 years ago. It was one of his many contributions to enhancing the natural beauty of Tallahassee.

So while some may sniff out dogs littering the grass and quiet of a park, we’d like to think Greene would appreciate the opportunity to introduce more people to Tallahassee’s parks and perhaps remind them of their contributions to the city.

The fenced dog park opened in early July. E. Peck Greene Park is between Duval and Bronough streets, across from the LeRoy Collins Leon County Library. The dog park is the fourth in Tallahassee, joining dog parks at Tom Brown Park, San Luis Mission Park and Boulevard Park, on Gaines Street.

Like the Boulevard Park dog park, the Greene Park dog park is an “urban dog park,” meaning it is small and occupies only the northwest corner of the park. Both urban dog parks are designed to serve the growing number of people living downtown.

Retired attorney Maggie Davidson has become a regular at the E. Peck Greene Dog Park, bringing Libby, a half-greyhound that Davidson’s family rescued from the shelter in January.

“We needed something like this,” Davidson said. “We live in Tennyson (condominiums on North Monroe Street) and the outside of it is the park chain. It’s great to have a place where a dog can be off leash and chase a ball.”

Chemist and lover of horticulture.

Edgar Peck Greene was born in Clarkesville, Arkansas, but moved at an early age to Arcadia, in southwest Florida, where his father, a doctor, was one of the pioneer settlers.

Peck Greene graduated from Florida Agricultural College, one of the precursors of the University of Florida, in 1904 and was hired as assistant state chemist in Tallahassee.

The state chemistry department was located in a brick building on the southeast corner of Capitol Square. One of Greene’s first personal projects was landscaping the area around his building and the capitol, which earned him praise from the Tallahassee Democrat, which wrote: “Under the care of Mr. Peck Greene, (Capitol Square) is rapidly becoming in a beautiful place, instead of the abandoned and abandoned place of previous years.”

Married to the former Clara Moore, Greene created lavish gardens at the two homes they occupied in Myers Park: 534 Oakland Avenue and his former home at 1702 Golf Terrace Drive (both still have touches of his original landscaping). He often held open houses for the public to see his gardens on Golf Terrace.

In 1931, the city commission hired an Orlando landscape architect to draw up plans to beautify local streets and parks. When funds for the project were not available, the Tallahassee Garden Club turned to Greene to design the chain of parks. Greene drew up plans for all seven parks and was involved in much of the planting.

In 1935, Greene was named the city’s official landscape beauty consultant and oversaw improvements to the Florida Governor’s Mansion and the Leon County Courthouse. In 1937, he was appointed, along with businessman OC Collins and Mrs. JG Kellum, to the city’s first Park Board. Although still working as an assistant state chemist, Greene was a consultant on many landscape projects, including individual residents’ homes.

On April 4, 1948, after a brief illness, Greene died. He was 63 years old.

The defense against the Indians becomes a chain of parks

Tallahassee was founded in 1824, five years after the First Seminole War. And the chain of downtown parks was one of Tallahassee’s first features, as a 200-foot-wide strip of land on Tallahassee’s northern border was preserved as protection against Indian attacks. The street that straddled the barrier was originally called 200 Foot Street and is now known as Park Avenue.

Tallahassee was never subject to Indian attack. But the barrier, of intermittent trees and open spaces of land, soon proved valuable: in 1843, a fire destroyed most of the city center, and for months afterward, many merchants operated from the sheds they erected in the barrier, while The city was rebuilt with brick structures.

In 1883, the Leon Hotel opened between Monroe and Adams Streets on the north side of 200 Foot Street, which had been renamed McCarty Street. It was Tallahassee’s most sumptuous hotel to date, and its developers converted their portion of the barrier into a park, creating the first of seven downtown park chains.

In 1885, the Lewis banking family laid out the buffer zone in front of their home on McCarty Street, between Gadsden and Calhoun Streets, creating the second in the chain of parks.

In 1891, the Tallahassee Improvement Association, a women’s organization and precursor to the Tallahassee Garden Club and the Tallahassee Woman’s Club, began designing the other five parks. It would take until 1901 before the project was completed.

Greene Park was originally Cherokee Park and today’s Cherokee Park was called DuVal Park, after a variety of roses that bloom in Tallahassee gardens. But as part of the 1938 name change, the DuVal name was dropped, Cherokee Park was moved one block west, and the Greene name was added because the Garden Club wanted to honor:

“Our esteemed fellow citizen (Greene), who by his unusual artistic ability, his rare knowledge of plant life, and his genius for landscaping has over a long period of years contributed more to the permanent beautification of Tallahassee than any other citizen in the history of the city.”

Festivals, weddings and a dog park

The chain of parks is an integral part of Tallahassee’s charm.

The parks are the centerpiece of annual celebrations such as Springtime Tallahassee, Winter Festival, Emancipation Day, and Art in the Park. The Downtown Market takes place weekly from March to November in Ponce de León Park. All seven parks host weddings and religious events: for many years, an annual Easter sunrise service was held at E. Peck Greene Park.

In 1994, five of the seven parks were remodeled, adding water fountains, benches, sidewalks, and low brick walls. In 1993, the Red Barber Camellia Garden was added to McCarty Park; In 2015, year-round Christmas lights were added to the trees at Ponce de León, McCarty, and Bloxham parks.

And now there’s a dog park at E. Peck Greene Park.

“The trend with these urban dog parks is to create small areas that don’t take over the park and allow other uses of the park to continue,” said Ashley Edwards, director of the Tallahassee Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Affairs. “It provides a niche for downtown residents to bring their dogs and becomes kind of a social gathering place.”

Davidson said one of the drawbacks of the new dog park is that Greene Park is a gathering place for homeless residents, who like to congregate under the park’s large covered pavilion: “I don’t mind them. But I’ve seen some college students “. “Girls bring their dogs here and then back away when they see homeless people.”

Homeless people have not caused problems at the park, and Edwards said the dog park can deter those who might cause problems.

“We found that the more activity, the more people around, the more eyes on the park, the less likely it is that there will be people doing bad things in the park,” he said.

Edwards said the city hopes to add other urban dog parks and is pleased to add another amenity to the chain of downtown parks.

“Obviously, we are reaping the benefits of Greene and the women who had the foresight to plan and lay the foundation for these parks,” Edwards said. “They played an important role in what we can enjoy today.”

Gerald Ensley was a reporter and columnist for the Tallahassee Democrat from 1980 until his retirement in 2015. He died in 2018 after a stroke. The Tallahassee Democrat publishes columns capturing Tallahassee history from Ensley’s vast archives every Sunday through 2024 in the Opinion section as part of the TLH 200: Gerald Ensley Memorial Bicentennial Project. There are still about two dozen copies of a book of Ensley’s columns available exclusively at Midtown Reader, 1123 Thomasville Road, or midtownreader.com. Proceeds from book sales and contributions have been used to establish a scholarship for budding journalists at FSU, as well as bringing this project to life in celebration of our 200th anniversary.

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This article originally appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat: Opinion: Dog park is a reminder of E. Peck Greene’s contributions