BECOME A MEMBER
Please consider an Active Household Membership for $20/yr or the Guilt-Free Household Membership for $50/yr.
Members help clean up in the Spring.
For 30 years, we have worked to preserve and keep Everhart Park beautiful.
With your memberships last year, we planted over 13 trees in the park and mulched them to protect them from the mowers. We worked with the Borough to trim trees. We steward the Little Free Library. See our kiosk for a new map of the areas of interest in the park.
Your membership will help grow our projects, including New rain gardens and permeable paving for the stroller entrance.
No other park has such diverse use as Everhart Park... quinceanos, yoga, Frisbee tournaments, dog walking, anniversary parties, wedding and family photo shoots, birthday parties, family and holiday picnics, the children's summer park program, Shakespeare in the Park and borough events including Turk's Head and the Easter Egg hunt.
"Each fall, hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies migrate from the United States and Canada to mountains in central Mexico where they wait out the winter until conditions favor a return flight in the spring. The monarch migration is truly one of the world's greatest natural wonders yet it is threatened by habitat loss at overwintering grounds in Mexico and throughout breeding areas in the United States and Canada." (Monarch Watch)
Monarch Way Station
Several years ago Friends of Everhart Park made a commitment to build a pollinator garden along the Children's Entrance steps off Union Street. As we learned more we joined the Monarch Watch and became a Monarch Watch Way Station. For more information about Monarchs go to: https://www.monarchwatch.org/waystations/
This is a good video for kids to watch about the stages of a monarch butterfly's life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AUeM8MbaIk
If you are interested in helping us maintain the garden, or have access to pollinator friendly plants you would like to donate, please let us know.
Forest Bathing is ..."not simply a walk in the woods, it is the conscious and contemplative practice of being immersed in the sights, sounds and smells of the forest. It was developed in Japan during the 1980s, and in 1982. Japan made this form of mobile meditation under the canopy of living forests a part of its national health program. Researchers, primarily in Japan and South Korea, have established a growing body of scientific literature on the diverse health benefits." (Global Wellness Institute)
The Everhart Park dedicated Forest Bathing area is located north of the stream and west of the Gazebo. You can find the location on the map in the kiosk. It is a section of the park that is not mowed during the growing season. As a result, small wildflowers thrive underfoot and the taller grass is soft in this shaded area. Please consider taking a stroll through this very special part of your park. Here are 6 easy steps:
1. Get yourself to this quiet section of the park
2. Silence all your devices
3. Slow everything down,- your pace and your breathing
4. Use all five senses to experience your surroundings in a new way.
5. Notice small details, small blooms, the pattern of bark on a tree.
6. Say thank you before you leave.
"In a world in which we are on 24/7, the negative effects of living hectic lives have taken a toll on our health and happiness. Forest bathing offers a healing way to get back to nature and ourselves. Research continues to show positive health results ofback to nature and ourselves. Research continues to show positive health results of this practice across all age groups—from children to elderly populations." (Very Well Mind)
For more information you can read Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness by Dr. Qing Li, or check out some of these websites:
https://www.visittruckeetahoe.com/blog/forest-bathing-nature
https://globalwellnessinstitute.org/wellnessevidence/forest-bathing/
Support a beautiful resource right here in the Borough's backyard.
Our Goals
FRIENDS OF EVERHART PARK, established in 1989, was formed to preserve and restore Everhart Park to its historic appearance. Through fundraising, volunteer work days, and advocacy, the Friends of Everhart Park has restored the radiating park paths, restored the gazebo, reconstructed the rustic footbridge, restored the Children’s Summer House and planted some 300 trees and shrubs.
WISHLIST
01.
Build shed in the Park for FOEP tools. DONE!
02.
Build a Wetland boardwalk DONE!
03.
Build stroller entrances at Miner Street DONE!
04.
New benches DONE!
05.
Label trees DONE!
06.
Map Park DONE!
07.
Create lending library DONE!
08.
Re-turf areas of the Park
09.
Repair erosion
10.
Work with Borough to make restrooms available to residents. DONE!
Our Mission
To restore Everhart's Grove to its past glory, while incorporating the new uses it provides and to encourage and build-up neighborhood support for and pride in the Park.
A History of Growing and Giving
EVERHART PARK is a 10-acre grove of hardwood trees and open fields that was originally part of the large Everhart Farm. The parcel was given to the Borough by the Everhart family in 1905.
TIMELINE
1828 – William S. Everhart purchases a 102 acre tract of land that includes the present park from William Wollerton.
1840-61 – The park area is used for outdoor political rallies, abolitionist and temperance meetings, and camp revivals. Area used as a Civil War camp to train the First West Chester Volunteer Regiment.
1904-05 – On November 17, 1905, Dr. Isaiah Everhart, nephew of the deceased William S. Everhart, donates Everhart Grove to the Borough of West Chester.
1906 – Oglesby Paul, a Philadelphia landscape designer “prepares plans” for improvements to the grove. The layout of radiating paths, gazebo, and footbridge are attributed to Oglesby Paul, and were probably scaled back by the County Engineer, who was consulted on the design.
1908 – A rustic gazebo similar to the gazebo in Marshall Square Park is constructed over the stream to serve as a bridge and meeting place. Mr Farra reports that there are over 500 trees in the grove (L 10/27/08). This gazebo remains to this day.
1909 – The radiating walks and a pond are constructed, and the Everhart fountain is moved to the pond from downtown Market Street.(DLN 2/7/1980).
1920 – Construction of the Barnard Street entrance, including stone piers and bronze plaque. West Chester Band concerts begin in the gazebo and continue until 1940.
1943 – The pond is drained.
1987 – Severe summer storm destroys dozens of virgin oaks and other hardwood trees in the park.
1989 – Friends of Everhart Park (FOEP) forms in response to a planned utility pipeline that would have eliminated nearly 20 ancient hardwoods.
1990 – FOEP begins a 3-year project to clear walks and stone gutters.
1994 – FOEP assists the Borough in the reconstruction of the stone foundations of the Gazebo.
“Jack’s Entrance” is built to honor a great neighbor and friend of the park, Jack Dautle.
1995 – FOEP prepares a Master Plan for the Park that is approved by Borough Council
1997 – FOEP installs the Horace Pippen Bench to honor a nationally recognized West Chester artist who was acclaimed only after his death.
2000-08 – FOEP funds or assists in the funding of several projects: planting of the wetlands with the BVA and Hillsdale School volunteers, reconstruction of the footbridge, memorial tree marker program, rehabilitation of the Children’s Summer House, reroofing of the Gazebo, and repaving of the Activity Court with pervious paving.
Help Us Maintain Our Beautiful Treasure
