Tag: mt storm

Dear Cliftonite:

Mount Storm Park is a treasure many of us in the neighborhood and across the region have enjoyed for decades. Over the last year, a group of us have been working on a project to develop a Master Plan to revitalize the park by restoring Adolph Strauch’s historic design.

Many will recall that Strauch was the Austrian landscape architect invited to Cincinnati by Robert Bowler (whose large estate is now Mount Storm Park) in 1850. Bowler admired Strauch’s landscape designs at the Royal Botanical Gardens in London and was taken by their pastoral feel, the placement of trees on the land that surprises and awes visitors. In addition to being the Cincinnati Parks’ first Superintendent and designer of Mount Storm and other estates along Lafayette Avenue, Strauch famously went on to design Spring Grove Cemetery.

The Cincinnati Parks Foundation, the Clifton Community Fund (the Parks’ Mt. Storm Advisory Council), and several generous individuals have donated to a restricted fund within the Foundation to develop a Master Plan for Mt. Storm that provides for moving, planting, and maintaining new trees in the mode of Strauch’s aesthetic; removing the dead trees and trimming existing ones; and cleaning up the invasive species crowding some of the Park area. The Plan for selection and location of plantings is being developed by the landscape architectural firm, Human Nature, and will be completed in January.

The Parks will contribute staff support and has already begun construction to reduce the size of the parking lot (without reducing parking spaces) to increase greenspace. Our goal is to have at least 2/3 of the planting completed before the end of 2019, including a redesign of the shelter house garden areas. Parks have estimated the budget for the project at approximately $70,000. $50,000 of that has been raised, and an ongoing fundraising campaign is being managed by the Foundation.

Contributions to this exciting project will honor and celebrate the extraordinary and often overlooked contribution nature, and trees in particular, make to our physical and mental health and to the wildlife that is supported by a well-designed greenspace. We see this as a legacy investment in our Parks, our children and grandchildren, and the planet; it is one sure thing we can do today for a better future for us
all.

All gifts are 100% tax-deductible, and gifts of any amount are appreciated. Larger donations of $1,000 or more will be honored with name recognition on a plaque within Mount Storm Park. Please click here to make a donation in support of Mt. Storm.

Sincerely,
Mary Jo Vesper & Bob Rack
Clifton Community Fund