The Trinity Park Foundation works to maintain and improve the Trinity Park neighborhood in four focus areas: The Park, traffic medians, public art, and trees.
The Park
The Foundation works on keeping The Trinity Park at 410 Watts St. clean, welcoming, healthy, and beautiful. Recent projects improvements include creating a History Grove with landscaping, installing a gate at the alley to provide greater safety especially for children, installing an irrigation system for the garden beds, installing landscaping along the eastern Park border to deal with runoff, installing new native landscaping along the northern Park border, repairing and leveling the granite steps at the W. Trinity Ave. entrance to the Park, and repairing and leveling the brick steps on W. Trinity Ave. Regular and periodic maintenance projects include repainting and restoring damaged wood on the gazebo, mulching and maintaining the garden beds, aerating and re-seeding the lawns, replacing decaying wood in the Park’s benches with weather-resistant native ash, and pruning the Park’s trees.
A popular feature at the edge of The Park is the Little Free Library (LFL), created with the support of The Foundation. We keep this asset open and in good shape. We are grateful to LFL champion Sue Concannon who checks on stock and condition. Please remember book donations are most welcome as you use the library.
Traffic Medians
The Foundation works with near neighbors to maintain the three circles in the north end of the neighborhood. Work is also underway to improve the Markham Ave. median. The Foundation has undertaken weeding and landscaping projects in the large median in W. Trinity Avenue median between Watts St. and N. Buchanan Blvd. This median presents a number of challenges that The Foundation is developing a plan to address. In the spring of 2018 The Foundation had the trees in the Main Street median trimmed and the tall grass removed to create the space for a welcoming sculpture by local artist Al Frega. Maintenance of all of these medians involves organizing neighbors to devote time on volunteer work days.
Public Art
In 2019-2020 three new pieces of public art were installed in our neighborhood. Stonemason Brooks Burleson crafted The Bug Walk in The Trinity Park. Metalsmiths Evie G. Watts and Steve Little sculpted a new sign for The Trinity Park at the corner of Watts St. and W. Trinity Ave. Metalsmith Al Frega created a sculpture titled “Industrial Romantic,” by welding industrial relics from the historic Chesterfield cigarette factory to create a new entrance sign for our neighborhood in the median at N. Buchanan Blvd. and West Main St. Just prior to the installation of these works, the neighborhood sign made by Vega Metals in 2001 was relocated to the Markham St. median, and the Michael Waller sculpture honoring neighborhood pioneer Marie Austin was placed in this median as well. The Foundation also purchased and installed identification labels for the artworks.
Trees
The Foundation pays for trimming the trees in the public easement at The Park and within The Park itself. In partnership with the City of Durham, we continue to plant and care for trees in the public spaces in the neighborhood so that the tree canopy – a beautiful and vital feature of Trinity Park – will flourish for generations to come. The Foundation has also supported other neighborhoods working to replenish the tree canopy in other parts of Durham.
