Last summer, we told you about Hawthorne Park, the new public green space planned for Hawthorne, right in the middle of 245 new homes built in the last decade. In case you’re unfamiliar with the history of the immediate area, PHA built towers here in 1960 that contained about 600 apartments. By the time these towers were demolished in 1999, the neighborhood had fallen on tough times, and about half of the units were uninhabitable. Over the past decade, however, this neighborhood has turned around dramatically. And this week, it’s getting a shiny new park.

A year ago

Current view

On Thursday, at 10:30am, Mayor Nutter and representatives from the Parks & Recreation department will dedicate this new space, which takes up nearly an acre of land in the heart of the neighborhood. The park, as you can see, is a thoughtfully planned space (designed by Lager Raabe Skafte Landscape Architects) with varying elevations, unique plantings, and some funky public art. The City also sees this park as a social hub for the neighborhood, which seems appropriate for the space that was previously occupied by the Hawthorne Community Center. Plenty of benches should make this very doable.

In adding an additional acre of green space, Hawthorne Park represents one more step in the right direction for the mayor’s Green2015 program. In addition, it fits right into the Greenworks Philadelphia plan, increasing green space and improving stormwater management.

It’s great to see this next step for Hawthorne, we imagine the neighborhood is ecstatic for the new addition. And for an end to the construction, which has been going on for over a year.

Here are some more shots of the park:

Northeast corner

Southern side of the park

Western side of the park