The Roland Park Community Foundation (RPCF) recently announced the purchase of 20 acres from Baltimore Country Club for a new park. Dubbed Hillside Park, the public greenspace will be designed in the style of Frederick Law Olmsted.
The park creators were inspired by Olmsted’s tenet of designing parks for all people as well as the surrounding neighborhood’s connection to the Olmsted Brothers firm.
Set to open in 2024, the park will be located along Falls Road between Hillside Road and Plover Lane, across from Baltimore Polytechnical Institute and Western High School. This location will offer students and others easy public access to the park for rest and retreat.
“Hillside Park is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enhance green space in Baltimore City and protect it as a place to be experienced and enjoyed by the public from across the city forever,” said Mary Page Michel, Chair of the RPCF. “For many years we have worked toward realizing our vision. The pandemic has shown all of us the value of public green spaces and access to nature.”
According to the press release, a public input phase and design process will take place, involving Morgan State University’s Graduate Landscape Architecture students, plus multiple neighborhoods and local schools, with the goal of determining the best ways to create a safe, fun, welcoming public space. Park design will feature passive and active areas— walking paths, open vistas, possibly playing fields, or other spaces for sports.
Hillside Park is believed to be the largest new public park in Baltimore City in over 100 years, with most of Baltimore’s large parks created in the late 1880s.
RPCF continues to raise funds for the purchase price of the land. To learn more about Hillside Park, please read the Spring 2022 issue of Roland Park News by clicking here and viewing the March 1, 2022 article from Baltimore Magazine by clicking here.
This article first appeared in the April 1, 2022, issue of Field Notes by the National Association for Olmsted Parks.
