Mrs. Stock’s park used to be property owned by the Stock family who owned the factory across the street from it. It wasn’t until the 1800’s that it was turned into a park by Wilhemina Stock. But then it fell into disrepair again until 2004 when Councilwoman Mary Anne MacRitchie was determined to restore the park to the garden that Wilhelmina Stock originally designed it to be.
Over the past 16 years, The Hillsdale Garden Club and other volunteers began to clean it up and landscape the park into what it is today with Diane Miller as master gardener.
Most recently, they have been clearing out the park near the new back entrance and gate of the park. And last week, Miller planted more redbud trees throughout the park.
“You never get done. Whatever you are working on, you are thinking, ‘Next I have to go here or there,’” Miller said.
The club has plans to add covered picnic tables, tear up the rest of a very old tennis court that they have pulled up part of, and keep planting and maintaining.
In the 1800s, when Stock’s Mill across the street was still operating, the land that is now the park used to be a barren swamp. It was a flood plain for the river, there were no trees, and it was mucky and snake infested.
This was the moment when Wilhelmina Stock, who along with her husband and owner of Stock’s Mill at the time, decided to turn the swamp into a garden.
She hauled in massive amounts of soil to fill in the swampy area and the quicksand pit that had developed. She did much of the work herself.
“She hitched her skirts up and put on her boots and she devised a harness so that her horses wouldn’t get stuck in it,” Miller said.
Then Stock had plants and trees brought from England and planted. There is even rumors that at one point the park was used for horse barns and riding.
But over time, especially after Stock’s Mill closed, the park turned into a dumping ground. The ravine that runs the length of the park used to be called the “mill race” and was full of water that could be pumped into the mill in case of fire. There even used to be boat races in the mill race. But after the mill closed and the water dried up, the ravine became a place for people to dump Christmas trees, tires, and other rubbish.
“Each year it got worse and worse and you could not see to the back it was so overgrown. And you couldn’t see the island,” Miller said. “You couldn’t tell where the island and the water were because it was filled with junk and brush.”
But then around 2004 Mary Anne MacRitchie decided it was time to clean up the park and restore its gardens. And about 15 dump truck loads of waste was removed from the ravine and the brush was cleaned out of the park.
MacRitchie then began looking for a garden designer to come and make plans for the newly cleaned up land. But the fee was prohibitive, so MacRitchie contacted Miller who headed up the project to keep restoring and working on the park. Miller has been doing so, along with members of the garden club and other volunteers, for the past 16 years.
In the time since Miller began working on the park, she has overseen the installment of the wrought iron fence and gate, as well as the clearing of the slope that runs from the ravine down the length of the park, and many other projects.
Louise Worms, who learned about the restoration project through the garden club and then was asked to join the committee about five years ago, has been following Miller’s lead as they continue to make improvements in the park every week.
“She is the master gardener of the group and the rest of us follow her lead, as best we can,” Worms said.
“The park has always been an enchanting place to me but I am so happy and proud about the work that has been accomplished there,” Worms said. “I don’t have a special favorite spot. I love the sunny colorful perennial garden and to quiet, shady spots that seem so peaceful.”
The Garden Club gets funding for their work from donations and during the Christmas season when they make and sell green wreaths and flower arrangements. And they also receive donations from their free summer concert series, which they hold in Mrs. Stock’s park during Tuesday nights in the summer.
“We pass a bucket to receive donations at the concerts,” Worms said. “Our audiences look forward to the season and we have even gleaned some Thursday morning workers from the audiences.”
Mitzi Dimmers has also worked on maintaining the park. Under the direction of Miller, she works every Thursday morning, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., on different projects throughout the park like weeding, planting, and mulching.
She has enjoyed being part of the work that helps keep the park beautiful for the community.
“It serves community purpose,” Dimmers said. “And because it’s downtown a lot of business people use it and a lot of walkers come through. That’s our purpose: to make it nice for the community.”
Dimmers said she is also excited to watch the plants grow and see the progress of their work.
“If we can keep the deer from eating everything, we get a lot of appreciation from how things are growing and developing,” she said.
