Emancipation Park renovation gets $2M boost

H-E-B, Houston Endowment and Kinder Foundation give to landmark

The grand redevelopment of Third Ward’s Emancipation Park has attracted $2 million in gifts from several foundations to support programming and operations for the historic destination’s almostcomplete $33 million renovation.

The land, purchased in 1872 with $800 donated by formerly enslaved people organized by the Rev. Jack Yates and other black leaders, became the state’s first public park.

This week, the Kinder Foundation and the Houston Endowment each pledged $750,000 to the Emancipation Park Conservancy Inc.

Kinder also offered a bonus $250,000 if that amount could be matched. H-E-B stepped up with a gift that rounded out the financial infusion to $2 million for the conservancy.

New leadership

The organization replaces the former caretaker group, Friends of Emancipation Park, which was founded nearly a decade ago by visionary preservationists who wanted something more for the community space at 3018 Dowling.

The conservancy will manage the park’s forthcoming community, recreational and educational programs as well as facility upkeep, board Chairman Ramon Manning said.

“The conservancy is charged with protecting and enriching the history and culture of Emancipation Park,” he said. “All of our major parks and green space operations anywhere in the city are all run by conservancy. We wanted to make sure our efforts aligned with the others.”

The park’s community center, playground and athletic facilities — except for the aquatic center — softly open the last week of this month.

A rededication program and grand re-opening will be June 18 to coincide with Juneteenth, the state holiday that marks the twoyears-delayed announcement reaching Texas in 1865 about the end of legalized slavery in the United States.

Manning, who is chairman and CEO of the Houston-based Partners Energy North America, said he hopes Emancipation Park again will become the center of Third Ward’s community activities. He added that the conservancy also received $100,000 from the Coca-Cola Foundation to provide financial empowerment courses.

“The conservancy will be partnering with local community organizations,” he said. “The conservancy should be viewed as a resource partner to add the extra horsepower to produce programming that will be central to people who live around the park.”

There are also opportunities to engage children in science, technology, engineering and math — known as STEM — at the facility, which pulls its energy from solar panels among other alternative sources.

“What we’re going to be able to do for the kids is introduce STEM programs and have an on-site, reallife case study about how this facility is so green,” Manning said.

Jacqueline Bostic, a great-granddaughter of Yates who is in her 70s, said the community financial support will allow “not only the completion of the facilities, but also help with the programming” and provide funding for staff.

“That in itself is really gratifying. For so many years, the park was not actually up to par because it was just simply neglected. It wasn’t given the same resources that other parks were being given,” she said. “Those that thrive and really do well also have a community component where community leaders and donors give money to make sure that the parks do excel. This is what we really never had before in Emancipation Park.”

Bostic also supports the renaming of Dowling Street to Emancipation Avenue, an issue the Houston City Council could consider at Wednesday’s meeting. Opponents have questioned the city’s street renaming process and others associate Dowling, though the surname of a white Confederate soldier, with the early 20th century boom in black commerce on the thoroughfare.

“Just like Hermann Park is on Hermann Park Drive and Memorial Park in on Memorial, why can’t Emancipation Park be on Emancipation? It would match. It would be nice. I hope they will do it,” Bostic said.

A dream fulfilled

Other early upgrade supporters included the late Lonal Robinson, who was publisher of the Houston Sun newspaper, and officials with the Houston Parks and Recreation Department. The reimagining also is a project of the Old Spanish Trail/Almeda Corridors Redevelopment Authority, which oversees the area’s reinvestment zone.

Robinson’s widow said the new athletic facilities will fulfill her husband’s desire to see Houston children succeed through sports.

“From 2007 until today, the Friends of Emancipation Park had worked for this vision to be sustained,” Dorris Ellis Robinson said. “We are now moving in the direction to make that happen with a new facility and new funders coming to the table to provide financial resources for the people of Houston.”

“For so many years, the park was not actually up to par because it was just simply neglected. It wasn’t given the same resources that other parks were being given.” Jacqueline Bostic, Third Ward resident