Matthias Baldwin Park

Matthias Baldwin Park is a two-acre (0.81 ha) public park at 423 North 19th Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1991, the park was dedicated as Franklin Town Park as part of the 50-acre development called Franklin Town. The Franklin Town Development Corporation was a private consortium which, along with City of Philadelphia officials, announced plans in 1971 to build a new "city-within-a-city" within ten years, in order to clear what they considered blight in a parcel just north of the commercial core of Philadelphia. The developers could earn a profit while the City tax base would increase. Eminent domain was threatened in order to remove the 600 inhabitants and business owners in the proposed development. The park was to be the apex of a new diagonal street called Franklin Town Boulevard and was to be the centerpiece of the development. By 1974 construction began but due to economic uncertainty in the 1970’s the project progressed in fits and starts, and still, 50 years later, is not completed. The park itself was a Percent for Art requirement of the developers of Franklin Town. Landscape artist Athena Tacha was commissioned to design the park, and the final version was the art piece titled Connections, which is made up of a terraced set of planting beds surrounded by a level surface with paved pathways and fifty trees. The park is one of the over 150 parks in the Phila

Park data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).