Longtime resident Alice Eady recalls the history of Hopkins Park. Photo/Debbie Daniel
Groundbreaking on the upcoming Hopkins Park renovation is being planned, now that the St. Cloud City Council has voted unanimously to award the contract to Mulligan Constructors, Inc.
“This project has been a long time coming, and seeing it finally become a reality is an incredible moment for the Hopkins community,” Council Member Shawn Fletcher, a longtime advocate for Hopkins Park, said at the Aug. 20 council meeting.
The park’s origins go back to the 1960s—the era of segregation—when St. Cloud, like many southern towns, was a “Sundown Town.” Ninety-year-old resident Alice Eady remembers it well.
“Oh, no. We couldn’t go uptown,” Eady said. “I remember my uncle-inlaw and three more boys, they had to run from the theater on 10th Street because some of the white guys were after them. Yeah, at sundown you had to be away from uptown.”
That “rule” left the residents in the Crawford Avenue area east of St. Cloud with few options for recreation once the sun set. But in 1964, land at the corner of 17th Street and Crawford was set aside for a park, which was named after the Rev. Robert Hopkins, and Hopkins Park became the cornerstone of that community.
With its dilapidated building, donated playground equipment, basketball courts, and baseball field, the park has played host to countless community meetings, afterschool programs, and sports practices.
The park holds a lot of history for Eady, who said as a child she played in the swamp that occupied the land where the park now sits. In fact, the baseball field at Hopkins Park is named in honor of Eady’s husband, David Eady Sr., who was a pioneer with the American Negro Baseball League, the Kissimmee Tigers, and played semipro baseball league before coaching the Bankers Little League Team of St. Cloud for 28 years.
She says the upcoming park renovations are amazing. “We need this,” she said. “It’s part of our legacy.”
And the park won’t just benefit the residents in her neighborhood. The population in east St. Cloud has seen significant growth in recent years. In fact, just a half mile from Hopkins Park, the Roan Bridge Development will add over 1,200 residences to the area. The updated park will bring a new 17,000-square-foot community center building, basketball court, baseball field, multi-use fields, community garden, and playground, creating expanded opportunities for recreation, sports, gathering and community activities for the rapidly expanding area.
The construction project is expected to cost $10.3 million, with additional funds for the facility’s furnishings and equipment. The city is funding the construction through a bond issue, which will be repaid using parks impact fees paid by developers for new construction.
Property tax dollars are not funding the Hopkins Park construction. (Read that part over again, folks.)
“This project has been a priority for the residents in that area for many years, and it’s exciting to see construction almost ready to begin,” said Council Member Jennifer Paul. “It will be an asset and a source of pride not only for that neighborhood but for all of the city of St. Cloud.”
For more information about the upgrades, visit www. StCloudFL.gov/HopkinsPark.
