Wilcox Park
Encyclopedia
Arboretum
An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...
located at 71 ½ High Street, Westerly, Rhode Island. It is open to the public at all times, without fee, and has been on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
since 1973 as Wilcox Park Historic District. The historic district includes 84 houses/buildings of the neighborhood surrounding the park covering a 50 acres (20.2 ha) area, including the main post office
U.S. Post Office (Westerly, Rhode Island)
The U.S. Post Office is an historic site at High and Broad Streets in Westerly, Rhode Island.The building was designed in 1913 by architect James Knox Taylor and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971....
and public library of the town of Westerly.
Wilcox Park, and the Romanesque Westerly Public Library and Memorial at its edge, were the 1898 bequest of Harriet Wilcox, widow of Stephen Wilcox
Stephen Wilcox
Stephen Wilcox, Jr. was an American inventor, best known as the co-inventor of the water-tube boiler. They went on to found the Babcock & Wilcox Company. He was born in Westerly, Rhode Island....
. The latter invented the non-explosive boiler and founded, along with fellow West'lyan Herman Babcock, the giant engineering firm of Babcock & Wilcox.
Wilcox Park was designed in 1898 by Warren H. Manning
Warren H. Manning
Warren Henry Manning was an influential American landscape designer and promoter of the informal and naturalistic “wild garden” approach to garden design...
, an associate of Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...
, and originally dominated by plants native to the region. However in the 1960s efforts began to develop the park as an arboretum. Current specialties include a dwarf conifer garden, herb
Herb
Except in botanical usage, an herb is "any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume" or "a part of such a plant as used in cooking"...
garden, garden of the senses, and perennial
Perennial plant
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...
garden, set off by fine Westerly granite masonry designed by landscape architect Arthur Shurcliff in 1929-1930.
The park contains a number of monuments and memorials including the Wilcox Memorial Fountain (1930), designed by John Francis Paramino and given in honor of Harriet and Stephen Wilcox. One tree was planted in memory of boxing champion Rocky Marciano
Rocky Marciano
Rocky Marciano , born Rocco Francis Marchegiano, was an American boxer and the heavyweight champion of the world from September 23, 1952, to April 27, 1956. Marciano is the only champion to hold the heavyweight title and go undefeated throughout his career. Marciano defended his title six times...
.
Today, Wilcox Park is privately operated by the Westerly Public Library's Board of Trustees. Both paid and unpaid staff are responsible for the upkeep of the grounds. In 2006 the board announced a plan to restore the park's original character by replacing the many walkways and the aging path lights.
The park is the location of the Summer Pops by the Chorus of Westerly
Chorus of Westerly
Founded in 1959 by George Kent, the Chorus of Westerly is a 190 voice chorus based in Westerly, Rhode Island. It is one of the few choruses in the nation which has children singing alongside adults for every performance of its season...
(since 1980) and the Shakespeare in the Park productions by the Colonial Theatre.