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Bellavistaparkasitwas
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Transcript of Bellavistaparkasitwas
The park as it once was
• The tennis courts were once the most important element in the park. There were few weekends when they were not in use. But the neighborhood changed.
Asphalt covered everything
• I don’t know when the asphalt covering was applied, perhaps when Bella Vista School was built? But by the time I arrived in the early 70’s the park was wall to wall asphalt.
There were basketball courts
• But I seldom saw anyone using them. The rims were generally bent and unusable. This is the NE corner circa 2004.
Benches along 11th Avenue
• Notice the gated 11th Avenue entrance in the rear.
The baseball backstop
• Despite the asphalt there were baseball games played here, generally by smaller kids.
A play structure near the 11th Avenue gate
• This was built a short time before the renovation. An arson fire destroyed the structure in about 2005.
The storage building
• The old storage building that had been decorated with student art.
Bella Vista School in the background
• Taken from near the baseball backstop towards the NE corner of he park. The community garden of the time is middle left.
A portable classroom at Bella Vista School
• January 2005
Gate between park and school
• It was important in those days to keep the two places separated as the park was home to drug dealers, prostitutes and other undesirables.
10th Avenue gate
• Not much changed here after the renovation
The tennis nets are gone
• Gradually the tennis courts were vandalized out of existence. The space was used mostly for stickball games against the white wall in the background.
11th Ave to the left
• Typical of the overall bleakness of the park at the time. This space was replaced by the native garden.
Another backstop
• The fence to the right separated the tennis courts from the rest of the park. The sign on the fence concerned some kind of student activity, I think.
11th Ave gate
• The new play structure was on the left.
Basketball courts
• Tennis courts to the left.
Tennis courts
• Note the large palm trees on 9th Avenue boundary markers of the old Borax Estate) to the right rear.
11th Avenue side
• Someone forgot their jacket.
Tether ball poles
• 11th Avenue to the left.