IMHO the best park in the city. (But they’re all good. Parks are the best.)
The huge variety of ways that people use this park is a pleasure to watch. Hobbyists (LARPing!), I’ve seen flycasters practicing, many dog-walkers … Next door is a retirement community so many amblers in wheelchairs or with walkers also. Children – some wearing capes – run around the path or play at the playground. Parties and meals at the gazebo and picnic tables; ducks, geese, other wildlife; and the fountain. Stepping stones across the water next to the lily pads.
My admiration goes out to Nancy Lewis, whom the park is named after. Kudos, for her sustained, powerful, and lasting efforts to establish and maintain these community spaces.
Enthusiastic Yelp reviews & some great photos.
A brief history of her efficient and lasting collaborative effort with Lyda Hill, that resulted in establishing the Garden of the Gods Visitor & Nature Center and Master Plan, to repair, maintain and manage that park.
According to a June 30, 2018 Gazette article
Nancy Lewis was, “…a former director of the city’s parks department, an author and tireless community leader and volunteer.”
She started working for the Parks and Recreation Department in 1966 as a $1.29-per-hour part-time recreation worker, rising through the ranks to become head of the department in 1987.
She retired in 1994 but remained active in the community.
In 1997, the city named a neighborhood park on Templeton Gap Road at North Logan Avenue in her honor. Her book [copies available from PPLD], “The Parks of Colorado Springs — Building a Community, Preserving a Legacy,” co-written with Deborah Odell, came out in 2011. It charts the history of the city’s parks from the creation of Acacia Park when the city was platted in 1871 to the modern-day debate over the importance and future of the parks, many of which were donated by Colorado Springs’ founder, Gen. William Jackson Palmer.
“I want to preserve — and I want to see the city preserve for future generations — the things that are important,” she said when the book was published.
As director of parks, Lewis helped salvage the department’s reputation after the previous director was sacked for mismanaging Ski Broadmoor and overspending the budget. Lewis considered her greatest accomplishment as parks chief was creating the Colorado Springs Senior Center on North Hancock Avenue…
