Clinton’s downtown gazebo is back
Market Street park opens, honors Maude Brown
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City workers put the final touches on the new downtown Maude W. Brown Park, where the old downtown gazebo has been renovated and re-erected after being removed from the park across Market Street next to Hoskins in the Flat. - G. Chambers Williams III
The gazebo is back on Market Street.
A Clinton Public Works crew carted the pieces of the landmark gazebo back to Market Street in mid-March, and city public works crews reinstalled it on the site of the new Maude W. Brown city park, which has now been completed and is open to the public.
The city had originally thought it would have to get a new gazebo for the park, built where the downtown taxicab stand used to be on Market Street, next to the former Joe’s Barber Shop location.
But City Manager Roger Houck said the city was able to rehabilitate the original gazebo, which had been downtown for decades before it was moved to the fairgrounds park area.
“That is the old one,” Houck said. “It’s the one that had been on Market Street 40-plus years. We did some structural repairs, pressure washed it and painted it. We found it was a lot cheaper to repair that one than to build a new one.”
The city put down sod on the park site, installed a brick walkway across the ground and around the gazebo, and installed four benches.
There will also be a “frost-proof” water fountain, Houck said.
“We have installed power outlets, and in the fall we will plant a new Christmas tree,” he added.
The land for the Maude W. Brown Park was donated to the city last November by former Mayor Cathy Brown, who stipulated that it can only be used as a park. Maude Brown was her mother.
She also donated $10,000 for the construction work and amenities for the park, Houck said.
Other stipulations required that the city erect a gazebo on the land, along with a Christmas tree and a walkway be laid with either brick or concrete stamped to look like brick, Cathy Brown said earlier.
“I bought the property from the heirs of Rachel Southerland on Oct. 28, and I promised I would turn it into a park,” said Brown.
She served three terms as Clinton’s mayor in the mid- to late-1980s.
“I didn’t want to restrict it too much, because I wanted it to be city property for use by the people,” she said.
“But I thought it was important to name it for my mom. She loved the gazebo across the street in the Hoskins-Lane Park.
“I’m also grateful to the Hoskins and Lane families that let the property across the street be used as a park for years,” she said.