HONORING A MOTHER’S LEGACY
Matteson Trail gets a $10K boost from its namesakes’ daughter, who plans to donate another $10K over the next five years
HAMPTON — Decades ago, Tess Matteson planted daffodils and other plants along an unnamed asphalt path that hugged the perimeter of the sprawling Hampton Golf Course.
An active senior volunteer who loved the outdoors, she did it to share her life-long passion for nature, and often chatted with joggers, bikers and pedestrians who used the city-owned pathway. Tess picked up the trash and alerted Hampton of cracks in the path. She added information notes about birds and posted pictures of people walking their dogs.
Hampton officials noticed. When Tess asked the city to name the path, officials decided to give it hers, designating it the Matteson Trail in the 1990s.
Tess Matteson died at age 95 in 2018. Hampton has since invested several thousands into the
Matteson Trail, sprucing it up with benches, new kiosks and a nearby gazebo and a plaque in her honor.
Tess’s daughter, Tyla Mattesonm also stepped up to help with the trail’s upkeep. She sent a letter and wrote a $10,000 check to the city for future enhancements on the 3-mile trail. The City Council accepted the donation in September. In addition, Matteson pledges to donate $2,000 every year for the next five years toward maintenance on the trail and shelter.
“I’m delighted to do it,” Matteson said. “I can’t take it to the grave. I might as well use it.”
Matteson, 75, is the chairwoman of the York River Group, Sierra Club. It is active on the Peninsula in promoting environmental causes. It hosts information sessions, local candidate forums and does advocacy work on multiple issues: climate change, the safe disposal of coal ash from sites in York County, protecting wetlands in Poquoson, pushing for a maritime forest at Fort Monroe and keeping the Riverview Farm Park at Newport News open for public use.
Honoring her mother for her years caring for the trail and the environment was something Matteson had wanted to do since her passing.
With the pandemic shutting things down, Matteson used money she had saved for travel after working three decades teaching at Kecoughtan High School.
“Because of COVID, I’m not going to be taking any big expensive vacations right now. I figured this is a good place to put the money,” Matteson said.
The Bag Lady
Matteson’s family moved to Hampton’s Riverdale section in 1961 following her father’s transfer to Fort Monroe. Her mother lived in the house for 56 years until her death.
“(My mother) could look out the window … at her backyard, and right behind the backyard,” Matteson said. “She could see all kinds of birds. She had binoculars handy to look at them. And there would be skimmers and egrets and all kinds of different birds that she could identify much better than me.”
Tess Matteson was a member of the Hampton Roads Bird Club. She shared her love of the outdoors with her children and anyone she met, Matteson said.
She spent her free time at the path at one time dubbed “The Sentara Track” Parks, Recreation and Leisure Services director David McCauley said in an email. The trail is adjacent to the former Sentara health and fitness center, which closed late 2018 and now houses the Hampton Police Academy.
Parks and recreation staffers say Tess routinely donated her own money and time to spread flower seeds, make small signs along the path, caretaking or planting.
In a Daily Press article from 2005, Tess Matteson called herself “the bag lady,” because trail walkers would spot her with a bag picking up litter. She would say “If they see me, they know I’m ‘naturing.’”
Former Hampton assistant city manager Elizabeth Walker learned of Tess’ stewardship and began the process of naming the trail for her sometime during the early 1990s.
Hampton has invested just over $21,000 for the Matteson Trail, an enhancement project that began last November and completed earlier in January, McCauley said. The improvements included a gazebo-shelter modeled after existing structures located at Sandy Bottom Nature Park, two information kiosks, and four benches along the trail. The city also added a plaque in Tess’ honor that described her as “lively spirit.”
Pending projects are additional landscaping around the gazebo and a paver walkway from the police academy parking area to the gazebo, which is near the parking area of the golf course clubhouse.
Matteson, who lives in Richmond now, would like to see some of her donation go toward creating that pathway to the gazebo.
“It’s better to give money when you can,” she said.