Elmington Park, near the intersection of I-440 and West End Avenue, has numerous uses, many publics, and an ever-increasing presence. For more than 80 years, neighborhood children and adults, and West End students have enjoyed the Park's playground, open field, shade trees, baseball diamond, tennis courts and picnic tables. Elmington Park (13.34 acres) is considered one of Nashville’s safest parks
, and is recognized for contributing in numerous ways to the quality of life for many Nashvillians. Elmington Park, 13.34 acres, was created on November 1, 1927, when the Park Board purchased the land with a combination of public funds and private contributions. The park and nearby Richland golf course were originally part of Edwin Warner’s Elmington estate. West End School – then a high school – was built adjacent to the park in 1935, and the Park was developed with Works Progress Administration Labor. Summary of Friends of Elmington Park Activities, January 2013
The Mission of the Friends of Elmington Park
To promote the preservation and enhancement of Elmington Park, one of Nashville’s oldest, most valued urban spaces. History of the Friends of Elmington Park
The Friends of Elmington Park began as a loosely structured group of people interested in the Park. It was founded in 1985 by Burkley Allen and Cyril Stewart, two neighbors who used the Park regularly and had dreams to enhance it. The Friends of Elmington Park advisory group worked with Metro Parks to develop design guidelines for the Park and to implement:
• New wooden playground equipment and slide
• Planting over 120 young trees, in addition to raising money to purchase them, and watering them during droughts
• Curbs and painted parking spaces
• Wider, paved entrance to the park road from Elmington Avenue
• Re-paved and painted crosswalk with speed bumps on the park road
• Several new picnic tables
• Repaired Works Progress Administration (WPA) stonework near corner of West End and Elmington Avenues
• New water fountain/spigot in the playground and spigot near the baseball field
• Improved safety of sidewalk between the Park and West End Middle School by replacing steps with a ramp
• “No parking” signage to delineate parking areas
• Address drainage problems
• Improved playing field through new grading, new turf and new irrigation system
In 1996 Friends of Elmington Park advised the Junior League of Nashville, which donated a significant expansion of the playground as a Tennessee Bicentennial gift to the City of Nashville. Founded in 1997, the Nashville Kangaroos Australian Rules Football Team began playing official games with teams from around the United States. They consider their home field Elmington Park the most beautiful Aussie Rules field in the nation. In 1998 Friends of Elmington Park received the Area Beautification Award from the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce West End Business Council. In 2007-08 two Boy Scouts, Jesse White and Buck Sheesley, who were achieving Eagle Scout status, designed and built a bus shelter on West End Avenue in Elmington Park which is based on a 1920’s trolley stop, in keeping with the historic background of Elmington Park. New young trees have been planted with a 90% success rate with help from three nearby neighborhoods associations. Bucket brigades and waterers were recruited during dry summer months to keep the young trees watered and mulched.
