The Roland Park Community Foundation will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 11, to celebrate the creation of Hillside Park, Baltimore City’s first major park of its size in more than a century.
The event comes three months after the community group purchased a 20-acre site from the Baltimore Country Club for $9 million. The goal was to convert the former golf course property to a civic amenity that would be open and accessible like other city parks but owned and maintained by a private non-profit entity so it won’t be a drain on the city’s budget.
Hillside Park stretches along Falls Road across from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and Western High School. The sale in July marked the culmination of 25 years of planning and fundraising to purchase the wooded hillside from the country club, which is retaining its clubhouse at 4712 Club Road and about 12 acres at the top of the hill.
The park is open to the public every day from dawn to dusk, the same hours that city parks have. Community leaders say it’s the first new park of its size since Patterson Park was created in 1860.
The ribbon-cutting event will take place at the park on Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., with remarks by Baltimore City Council Vice President Sharon Green Middleton and others starting at noon.
The Powell Younger Project band will perform, and the foundation will provide a dessert and activities for kids. Participants are encouraged to bring lawn chairs, blankets and lunch.
“We are so excited to welcome people and celebrate Hillside Park — it’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create something enduring and essential for Baltimore City,” said foundation chair Mary Page Michel, in a statement. “Hillside Park aims to be an educational campus that honors and celebrates nature for all — a space that brings people together. We invite everyone to enjoy it.”
More information is available at www.hillsideparkmd.org.
