Holly Park offers new, clean fun after $2 million makeover
Playground, picnic tables and pines included in renovation on Bernal Heights hilltop
Kathleen Sullivan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, September 17, 2004
It's a hot September morning in Holly Park, and most of the adults are huddled in the meager shadow cast by a pint-size playhouse on the "second story" of a play structure.
Not the kids.
"Max, come over here," a little girl named Caroline called out to a classmate who had climbed to the top of the rope dome, hoping to get him to join her in a race down a side-by-side slide.
They were among a group of seven children, ages 3 to 5, who are members of Hola Kids, a Spanish language immersion play group.
Undaunted by the heat, the kids rushed from one attraction to another -- eager to climb, swing, jump, swoop and slide every which way possible.
It was their first visit to the recently renovated playground, a brightly colored beacon of ropes, swings, slides and jungle gyms that brightens the east side of the hilltop park.
"When they get back to the school, their teachers will ask them in Spanish which one they liked best,'' said Edith Cabrera, a 50-year-old teacher for the program, which is run by a center called Language In Action.
The slide -- deslisandero.
Seesaw -- sube y baja.
Swings -- columpios.
The playground is one of the recent renovations to the park, a green dome with grass, shrubs, Monterey pines, eucalyptus and olive trees that rises above the rooftops in south Bernal Heights.
To celebrate the $2 million makeover, the neighborhood is holding a party in Holly Park from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday with snacks, music and children's activities -- bocados, música y actividades par niños.
Visitors will be able to enjoy the festivities while relaxing on new wooden benches and picnic tables tucked in the welcome shade of fragrant eucalyptus branches.
Or they could shoot hoops on its refurbished basketball court.
David Cortez, a 15-year-old sophomore at John O'Connell High School, said basketballs once took crazy bounces off broken-down backboards, slipped through holes in the chain-link fence, and disappeared downhill.
He said that players don't have to worry about chasing errant balls through brush and trees anymore.
"It's all new,'' said Cortez, holding a weathered basketball while he took a break from sinking shots.
The area now known as Holly Park was once part of a vast land grant given to José Cornelio Bernal, a Mexican soldier who was born in "Alta California" and was married at Mission Dolores.
In 1862, a wealthy silver miner bought the 7 1/2-acre parcel on the hilltop and deeded it to the city.
After Holly Park Avenue -- now Holly Park Circle -- was built at the bottom of the hill in 1874, families began climbing to the top of the 274-foot- high park for outings, according to park history published by the Neighborhood Parks Council.
In the 20th century, the city installed tennis and basketball courts, a baseball diamond and a children's playground, and, over the decades, made various repairs and improvements.
But by the time the 21st century rolled around, Holly Park needed rejuvenation.
Eugenie Marek, who has lived near the park for 14 years, noticed in 2000 how badly its amenities -- picnic tables, barbecue pits, playground, courts and playing field -- had deteriorated.
"I'm a longtime morning walker in the park, and one day someone said to me, 'Take a look at this park,' '' recalled Marek, 60. "I opened my eyes to how the park would look, not just to me as a morning walker, but to the various kinds of people who might be coming to it. Generally speaking, it looked shabby -- the type of place you wouldn't want to go to.''
Marek, a nurse case manager at Stanford Hospital, decided to see what she -- and other neighbors -- could do. They formed Friends of Holly Park to champion the cause.
Four years later, the fruits of their labor -- and of neighborhood questionnaires, community meetings, a "wish list" from the kids at nearby Junipero Serra Elementary School, fund-raising, special events, and collaboration with staff at the city's Recreation and Park Department and at the Department of Public Works -- can be seen throughout the park.
There are palm trees at each of the four stairway entrances, a bed of flowering rosemary bushes, pathways accessible to people who visit the park in wheelchairs, a refurbished tennis court and small wooden tables suited to chess, checkers or chatting.
Soon to arrive: a wind-powered kinetic dragonfly sculpture created by artist Joyce Hsu.
There are still a few things on the "to do" list for the park, including renovating the bathrooms.
Marek said the group is also working with Nick Carr, a traffic planner with the city's "Livable Streets" program, to improve the safety of pedestrians crossing Holly Park Circle, especially schoolchildren who use the park for recreation programs.
"For us, that would be the completion of the renovation,'' she said. "We didn't just want the park redone. We wanted access to the park to be first- rate.''
Celebration set
A party will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday in Holly Park, Holly Park Circle and Highland Avenue.
E-mail Kathleen Sullivan at
ksullivan@sfchronicle.com.
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