One of the Lockport Parks Pages featured at
The
Lockport Home Page: www.Lockport-NY.com
THE PICTURE OF LOCKPORT
Located at the intersection of Locust, Washburn, and Willow Streets, it's at the gateway to one of Lockport's finest neighborhoods. The main purpose of this little green island appears to be only to provide a place for folks to walk their dogs and some volunteers to plant flowers. Once in a while, neighborhood children start up various "ball" games here although there is supposed be "no ball playing" in this park.
In early May 1999 the major feature of Locust Park
seems to be this nifty floral display. The yellow tulips are the effort of many
volunteer hours by members of the Zonta Club. The smaller yellow flowers, dotting
the grass, didn't take any effort and are not the work of volunteers. They just seem
to come with the territory.
Incidentally, traffic coming into this intersection from Washburn Street should first make a sharp right turn onto Locust, yielding to all other traffic at the intersection. When Washburn Street traffic proceeds directly to Willow, it invites dangerous conflict with Locust Street north and south traffic which has priority.
About in the middle of Locust Park there used to be a magnificent water fountain with sprays going skyward on summer days. It's diameter was almost half the width of the park and it was located just slightly off what would be determined to be the center of area for the right triangle which forms the park. It was removed and covered over well more than fifty years ago---longer than anyone at the Lockport Page can remember. If it were in operation today it would would have a dramatic impact on this park and the area.
There is yet another informational morsel we can point out about Locust Park. It is one of the few city parks where some politician or their supporter hasn't had his or her name attached to it (yet). Quite remarkable.
When you pass through this intersection and wait your turn in traffic (multiple-way STOP intersection), you might take a look at the north-west corner of Locust and Willow (shown below). This is the former home of famed Lockport artist, A. Raphael Beck. His daughter, Phyllis VanDeMark, makes her home here today. In about 1908, the property was one of two adjacent estates owned by T. D. Robinson.
Mr. Beck, was an internationally recognized American artist.
He was the winner of three international expositions. He painted the
famous mural entitled "The Opening of the Erie Canal" which has been relocated
to the auditorium of Lockport High School. Beck lived 1858 to 1947. When he
resided here at the corner of Locust and Willow, his studio was upstairs in the smaller
building which is used for a garage (to rear right in picture).
The Beck home is on the west side of Locust Park. On the east side are some nice but more modest homes which went up in the 2nd quarter of the 20th century and still represent one of the city's better neighborhoods. But before the homes, a huge expanse of land east of Locust Park was known as the Lockport Fairgrounds. That's right, before the facility on Route 78 north of the city, the Fairgrounds was located just to the east of Locust Park and Washburn Street. In the view below, the main entry to the Fairgrounds was about at the interesection of Morrow and Washburn (that's just above where our Lockport Page identifier is imprinted). The Fairgrounds extended from Washburn on the west to Beattie Avenue on the east, Willow on the south, to what would be Regent on the north.
Regarding the house on the left side of this view, the current resident, Geoffrey Koplas advises by e-mail:
The house which now stands where the entrance to the fairgrounds once stood
belonged to the Upson family (of Upson Board fame, as you note elsewhere on your site).
It was purchased from the Upsons in the early seventies by my parents (John and
Dianne Koplas, popular teachers in the community before they retired), and has just
recently been purchased from them by my wife and me. It is a red house
("picnic-table color") on the corner of Washburn and Morrow.
The house itself contains a two-story+attic addition walled entirely with Upson Board,
which has held up remarkably well. . As long as the addition was being built,
the Upson's decided to add to both floors of the building. The house and property
have held up admirably, and my wife and I now face the challenge of completing what few
renovations are necessary/desired
while maintaining the history and charm of the home.
Amazing, isn't it, that a simple story about a small park, leads to so much!
(5/5/99)
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