1939:

A group of Charlotte Lions Club members win a bowling tournament and receive a steak dinner as a prize. Over the steaks, they discuss potential club projects and agree that the city needs a first-class urban park, with not only fields and playgrounds, but also picnic areas and even a shallow lake that could be used for ice skating in the winter.

1943:

In the midst of World War II, the Lions Club decided to combine its park idea with honoring Mecklenburg County’s 10,000 military personnel. The club raised more than $40,000 and began purchasing parcels of an old polo field between East Boulevard and Princeton Avenue. The field was located in the growing Myers Park neighborhood, along what was then called Sugaw (later Little Sugar) Creek.

Autumn 1944:

The Lions Club has purchased over 100 acres of land, hired a designer and formed the Charlotte Park Association, which is launching a fundraiser to raise $400,000 – about $7 million in 2024.

3 April 1945:

A committee chaired by Mayor Herbert H. Baxter decided on the name “Freedom Park.” The name was proposed by Corporal Joe B. Gettis of 425 North Brevard Street, who explained his choice in a letter from his army base in Corsica: “Because the children there will be free – free from want. Free from fear. Free from the thought of having to fight in a war again as an adult, as we did.”

May 29, 1945:

The Freedom Park project receives approval from the City Planning Commission, which declares that the new park “should be to Charlotte what Central Park is to New York or Lincoln Park is to Chicago. The Lions Club deserves congratulations for the tremendous task it has undertaken.”

July 15, 1947:

The Lions Club is turning over the first part of the park, including 12 tennis courts, to the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission. Lighted softball and baseball fields as well as a soccer field are planned.

13 November 1947:

The lake is stocked with 5,000 bream juveniles from the state fish hatchery in Fayetteville.

March 12, 1948:

Police are searching for suspects who drained the lake, killing most of the fish in the process. Police Chief Frank N. Littlejohn says the vandals left little evidence, “but investigators are trying to track down several men and women who were reportedly seen drunk on the lakeshore late Thursday afternoon.”

Spring 1948:

The park, still under construction, will be opened to the public. Flower and tree planting programs will begin, and the lake will be refilled and stocked with fish.

March 22, 1950:

The Junior League approves a plan to build a $50,000 Children’s Nature Center in the park. It will remain there for the next 74 years.

May 18, 1954:

President Dwight D. Eisenhower addresses a crowd of about 30,000 people while U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy leads hearings on alleged communist infiltration of the government. It is the first of two presidential appearances in the park, this time to mark Armed Forces Day and the 179th anniversary of the signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. “Like most of the people gathered in beautiful, green Freedom Park,” said the observer reports: “He ate a packaged chicken for lunch, drank iced tea and had a wonderful time.”

November 1959:

The Parks and Recreation Commission preserves one of the park’s most popular landmarks, a 1920 Seaboard Air Line Railroad steam locomotive, which remains there to this day.

21 September 1965:

The first day of the park’s first-ever festival, which continues to attract larger crowds throughout the week.

May 20, 1975:

Before a crowd of 105,000, believed to be the largest in the park’s history, President Gerald Ford commemorates the 200th anniversary of Mecklenburg’s Declaration of Independence with a 15-minute speech from the park’s bandshell praising the South and its people.

June 1988:

Charlotte police are now cracking down on “cruisers” who drive slowly through the park and cause traffic jams by forcing visitors to park – a practice that some black residents interpret as racist. “What they’re saying is that if too many black people gather, there will be trouble,” says 24-year-old Rodney Sellers. “That’s ridiculous.”

July 6, 1989:

Concerned about overcrowding and outdated facilities, city officials announced an $11.6 million plan to renovate the park and limit its use. It is designed as a “district park” to serve surrounding neighborhoods, rather than a “community park” for the entire city, says parks supervisor Tom McDermott. Planned changes include moving the Nature Center to Discovery Place in uptown and outdoor concerts to other locations, new and relocated playgrounds and sports fields, and draining, dredging, landscaping and improving the lake.

22 September 1989:

The park, like the rest of Charlotte, suffered significant damage from Hurricane Hugo. The storm – and the over-aggressive Duke Power crews in its aftermath – downed 850 pines, 39 oaks and 867 miscellaneous trees.

1991-92:

A volunteer group called City Trees is planting 7,500 trees to restore the park’s canopy.

November 1994:

To address ongoing overcrowding, Mecklenburg County government charges a $3 fee per car on weekends and holidays for Freedom Park and four other parks.

March 1995:

After receiving numerous complaints and observing the impact of traffic on surrounding streets, commissioners eliminated the fee.

June 2006:

The Freedom Park Neighborhood Association names the covered shelter and park offices the Mahlon Adams Pavilion to honor a longtime resident and community activist.

June 2020:

Hundreds gather and march in the park on Memorial Day to protest the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

January 31, 2024:

The Children’s Nature Museum – now Discovery Place Nature – will close for a $16 million renovation to replace the main building, built in 1951. The new facility, scheduled to open in 2025, will include a treetop walkway, a nature lab and habitats for North American river otters and turtles.

The editor is GREG LACOUR.