The Gardens:

The Friends of Lafayette-Pointer Park maintain gardens in and along the perimeter of the park, including: gardens along Broad Branch Road, a pollinator garden on Quesada Street, gardens by the tennis courts, along 33rd Street, and by Oliver Street.

A Garden Treat!

John Kelly’s column in the Washington Post of Tuesday, November 1, 2011, has a nice mention about a memorial for a gardener named Ted Farber, who had an affection for tulips. In his honor bulbs are being planted around the DC metro area. His daughter, Sandy, the coordinator of UDC’s Master Gardener program has distributed 2800 bulbs to be planted in many places around the city. Thanks to Maggie Heyward, who is finishing her Master Gardener volunteer hours, the Friends of Lafayette-Pointer Park have 300 small Bronze Charm tulips being planted in our park along 33rd Street near the sidewalk. FOLP and the garden group really appreciates being included in this lovely memorial.

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Amphitheater Repair Project

The Friends of Lafayette-Pointer Park (FOLP) played a vital roll in getting extensive repairs done to the amphitheater in August 2011. The rehabilitation project was completed at the beginning of the school year 2011-2012. The FOLP and the Lafayette Home and School Association (HSA) paid for and managed the project – through funds from the generous support of neighbors and Lafayette school families. The amphitheater, which is adjacent to the ball field and originally built in 2001, had fallen into disrepair from heavy use. It has now regained its position as a wonderful asset for the park.

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Landscaping | Gardens

In the 1990’s, a group of concerned neighbors planted the hill at Quesada and Broadbranch with azaleas. In the early 90s, Judy Goodman, a park’s neighbor, got together a small group of gardeners who raised money for plants and began rehabilitating the Quesada Street corner. Other plants were donated by neighbors and American Plant Food. Local boyscouts helped prepare the site and garden designer, Jane Berger, donated plans.

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Before long FOLP was formed and began raising money to improve the park. The garden group became part of the organization and with the hard work of Bill Mullan, Merrill Hare, Page Kennedy, Suzanne Hurwitz, Nancy Slade, Molly McKitterick, Paul Rosenbaum and many “clean-up day” neighbors, the gardens were planted. Since then we have had a beautiful garden added at the Patterson Ave. steps by Debbie Shore in memory of her son Danny. Memorial trees have been planted for Robin Kreisberg and Christian Myler.

Recent efforts

Since the early 2000’s, the Casey Tree Foundation has planted trees for the future of the park. Our most difficult problem; getting water for the gardens, was finally solved when Jeff Stoiber convinced the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) to put in a water system which reaches the park perimeters. Maintenance and planting never end; our undying gratitude for endless hours of work goes to Merrill Hare and Bill Mullan who were both been nominated by the Chevy Chase Citizen’s Association and received the “Grass Roots Award” from the Federation of Civic Associations for their great contribution to our beautiful park.

For years our park gardens have been the beneficiaries of the generous contributions of our neighbors. Some come in the form of plants themselves, and some in money to pay for plantings, as well as strong people to do the heavy work. Our constant gardeners, Judy Goodman and Merrill Hare, work [image: Park]tirelessly to keep our park beautiful. (And Bill Mullan, who passed away in 2019.)

On April 25, 2015, during our Spring clean up day, Friends of Lafayette Park dedicated a beautiful plaque to o[image: 0429151619]ur former gardening friend Bill Mullan.

Many people had seen Bill working on the spectacular gardens along Broad Branch Road across from his home.  Bill Mullan’s Obituary

Many thanks to our other volunteers and all those who have helped make our park a garden spot in DC.

In 1999 when the Friends of Lafayette Park was founded, the directors worked with the community to develop our first phase of goals for the park. Those goals, our Phase I Master Plan, were completed in the first 10 years.

In commemoration of our tenth anniversary in 2009, the Friends of Lafayette Park developed a Phase II master Plan. The plans included the following (and many have since been addressed):

Capital Improvements

1. Replace all walkways in the park. See final planfor additional details.
2. Install new lighting on the upper park to match the lower park.
3. Install a rubberized running track around the baseball fields.
4. Install picnic tables at various locations throughout the Park.
5. Renovate the school gym.
6. Design and build a new recreation center.
7. Extend the green water irrigation system to the Broad Branch Road garden (currently under construction).

Maintenance Items

1. Correct drainage and erosion problems throughout the park including the spray park, track around baseball fields and the dugout concrete pad (first base side).
2. Repair earthen wall between spray park and play area and the dog area.
3. Grade and level the baseball fields.
4. Aerate, fertilize and seed the baseball fields.
5. Widen/paving access road/walk-way to eliminate the permanent, mud ruts (soon to be replaced).
6. Fix the chain-link gates by the tennis courts (problem: they are not aligned and therefore do not close properly).
7. Color coat the tennis courts; they were done last in 2003 and there are bare spots in high traffic areas as well as mini-potholes on some of the playing surfaces.
8. Replace the trash receptacle in the trash area. Also, the gate on the fence around the trash area was knocked off by one of the trash trucks and needs to be reattached to the fence.