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YouTubeThe gym smelled of new paint and floor varnish, but the dedication of the rebuilt Dodge Park and Recreation Center was all about history and memory.
Carol J. Stewart told a crowd of about 300 how her children and her grandchildren played at the park and the rec center in Franklinton, which was first built in 1933.
“Now there are great-grandchildren that will use Dodge,” said Stewart, who also is the chairwoman of the Franklinton Area Commission. “It’s a good day.”
Columbus Recreation and Parks spent $5.5 million on the new building, which features a library, lounge, kitchen, game room and boxing room. Outside, a new roller hockey rink joins a skateboard area and a swimming pool.
The Dodge opening comes about a month after the city opened another rec center on Columbus’ Far North Side. The similarly sized Lazelle Woods Recreation Center cost about $5.2 million.
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Comments
- RellekOTE: Fantastic! This building has been and shall remain a show piece for Downto
- columbusmike: This is a really good story. LeVeque is the most iconic image of Columbus
- dehayst: Awesome.
- Nicholas Herum: @AmyD & @Walker - That's cool. Being able to see the produce that you'
- Walker: @nicholas & @amyd - the majority of the plants grown around the patio are f
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Fond memories surround opening of Franklinton rec center
By: Walker
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I’m still waiting for Franklinton to catch a real urban-renewal wave instead of the isolated raindrops it’s been getting so far. The area between 315 and the river in particular seems like it should have massive upside potential. Unless flooding there is still a much bigger risk than I’ve been led to believe, I can’t see what’s been holding it down. There are places along the river there where the scenery could be as good as or better than Miranova … where a river-facing mid- or high-rise residence would give you a panoramic view of the Scioto and the entire Columbus skyline across the river as well. Architecture or engineering has to be a problem somewhere in there.
I think once the floodwall was completed it lifted a lot of building restrictions in the area, but that was several years ago, and really nothing new is happening over there. My guess is because larger investors are concentrating on downtown and arena district projects and smaller home renovators are concentrating on areas like OTE and Merion Village. Franklinton just hasn’t been hit yet, and people are just sitting around waiting for it to happen.
There’s already been a handful of announcements in the last few months, mainly about a 134-unit residential proposal, which is a pretty good sized development over there. Maybe it will be enough to get the ball rolling? I think we’ll probably see some more announcements for projects there this year, but it will probably be another 10-15 years before that neighborhood is on par with any of the other downtown neighborhoods.
Here’s hoping! :)
Yeah. I try to stay eternally optimistic when it comes to this stuff. :D