Throughout November, we have been counting down to Thanksgiving by posting daily thanks on Facebook. There is some overlap with our lists from Thanksgiving in 2012 and 2014, and so much more to add – it is amazing how much there is to be grateful for! Here are those daily posts – these were in no particular order, and it is by no means a complete list!

Day 1: … long-time park supervisor James Stokes, Jr. for his years of care for the park. He started work on October 31, 1935 and continued for at least 25 years, and by all accounts really loved Glen Providence Park. He served as park guard, caretaker, supervisor, and park ranger – personally building picnic tables, preparing for concerts, planting trees & flowers, teaching visitors about the plants & wildlife, and creating the 1941 Nature Guide to Glen Providence Park!

Day 2: … the local schools that use Glen Providence Park as an outdoor classroom and for service learning, teaching their students a love of nature, science, art, and more. Thank you Media Elementary School, Springton Lake Middle School, Media Providence Friends School, Penncrest High School – and homeschoolers!

Day 3: … Delaware County Parks & Recreation, for resurfacing the historical WPA stage last summer in time for the park’s 80th anniversary celebration, for their support of our events and activities, and for their many years of caretaking and managing their 621 acres (and growing!) of open space for the public.

Day 4: … all that Chester-Ridley-Crum Watersheds Association has done since 1970 to protect, conserve, and restore the watersheds throughout its 132 square mile stewardship area! Its initiatives include annual streams cleanups, riparian reforestation, advocacy, education, and stream monitoring. We are honored to receive their Organizational Stewardship Award this year!  

Day 5: … our Nature Walk guides and monthly event leaders who volunteered their time in the past two years: the ever-helpful Al Guarente of the Birding Club of Delaware County, Gary Stolz, David Hewitt, Shannon Davidson, Marcia Tate, Stephanie Gaboriault, Kyle Loucks, George Tate, the Media-Upper Providence Free Library, Holly Hoffmann, Aura Lester, and Charles Randall.

Day 6: … Taylor Memorial Arboretum in Wallingford, for generously growing and donating native trees and shrubs each year for habitat restoration plantings by other organizations – including for our past four National Public Lands Days!

Day 7: … the Delaware County Institute of Science, an amazing organization that has been all volunteer since 1833.  It has wonderful scientific and historical collections, and is well worth a visit. Its members have been studying Glen Providence Park since before it was a park – a 1928 Chester Times article about the valley indicated that “Naturalists, from all over the country, attending the Delaware County Institute of Science, make a study of it.”  

Day 8: … EllieReed Lewis and Clifford Butler Lewis, the grandchildren of park donors George and Eleanor Butler –  for sharing their recollections from childhood in Glen Providence Park, and for celebrating the park’s 80th anniversary with us last summer!

Day 9: … our Invasive Plant Removal volunteers, who meet most Friday mornings to work in the park. In the past 4 years, they have cleared over 250 packed contractor bags of invasive plants – keeping trails clear, liberating native plants from strangling vines, improving habitat, and beautifying the park.

Day 10: … those who have made our historical research possible, including the Media Historic Archives, the Delaware County Historical Society, and the Newspaper Archives of Delaware County Library – and Delaware County, PA History for sharing our history-related facebook posts.

Day 11: … the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts for their years of involvement in Glen Providence Park going back to at least 1939 – with hikes, cookouts, award ceremonies, meetings, and community service. In the past few years, Brownie Troop #5248 and Minquas District Boy Scouts have volunteered, and Girl Scout Troop #5037 and Pack 503’s Webelos II have had meetings and outings in the park!

Day 12: … our wonderfully generous Concert Sponsors: Media Recreation Board, Media Rotary Foundation, Diego’s Cantina, Seven Stones Café, Shere-e-Punjab Indian Restaurant, Sterling Pig, and Tagine, who made it possible for us to revive the decades-long tradition of free summer concerts in Glen Providence Park.

Day 13: … Media Lions Club and McCarrin Chiropractic, for continuing Glen Providence Park’s longest-running tradition – the Great Media Easter Egg Hunt started in 1954! The Lions have worked since 1917 to fight blindness, and on many other community projects.

Day 14: … the American Chestnut Foundation, for their work to restore this once-majestic native tree, decimated by blight in the early 1900’s. Chestnuts were called the Sequoias of the east, and we know from T. Chalkley Palmer’s 1889 writings that the park’s eastern hill was once “continuously wooded with oaks and chestnuts.” We have found two surviving trees so far!

Day 15:  … all of the volunteers who have spent their free time working for Glen Providence Park through the years – our dedicated committee members, the dozens of people who have helped at our 17 volunteer days, and all those who volunteered in the park before us.

Day 16: … the Pennsylvania Amphibian & Reptile Survey (PARS), for their work to gather data for the study and conservation of our amphibians and reptiles, and for leading 3 Herpetology Walks in Glen Providence Park! We’ve documented 18 species in the park so far…

Day 17: … Samuel L. Smedley, who with great foresight and wisdom in 1927 urged regional planning for open space, and spearheaded the creation of Delaware County Parks & Recreation, which was used as a model nationally for its excellent planning. He personally helped create and plan Glen Providence Park.

Day 18: … all of those who appreciate our efforts to preserve and enhance Glen Providence Park – whether by reading our newsletter and website, attending our concerts and nature walks, or saying a kind word when they see us in the park – and of course our Facebook fans!

Day 19: … the Delaware County Conservation District for their guidance, mini-grants, donations, use of their Conservation Trailer, and support for our native plantings over the past 5 years – helping us to combat streamside erosion, restore habitat, provide food for wildlife, and  beautify the park.

Day 20: … our donors, whose generous support enables us to continue our work to improve the park and plan future concerts, plantings, events, and activities!

Day 21: … the array of wildlife, native plants, and all living things in the park, which with the changing seasons provide something new to discover on every walk in Glen Providence Park.

Day 22: … Hedgerow Theatre, for their enchanting performances at the WPA stage – enacting the park’s historical Newlywed Ghost and Witch Stories for Glen Providence’s 80th anniversary last year, and bringing Shakespeare to the park this summer!

Day 23: … T. Chalkley Palmer, 1860-1934, for writing in loving detail about Scroggie Valley in 1889, enabling us all these years later to read about the geology, landscape, flora, and fauna of Glen Providence Park as it was in the 1800′s. He also had remarkable environmental insights for his time. What a gift!

Day 24 of Thanks: We are so thankful for George and Eleanor Butler, who with great generosity and foresight in 1935 donated most of the land for Glen Providence Park as a Bird Sanctuary and Arboretum, to be preserved for future generations. There would be no park without them – we are incredibly grateful!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As part of our 2016 Summer Performance Series, Hedgerow Theatre brought Shakespeare to the historical Glen Providence Park stage! The natural setting of the park – with its elegant Ostrich ferns – provided a charming backdrop for the strange and delightful comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, whose characters are controlled and manipulated by forest fairies.

Under the inspired direction of Hedgerow Theatre Executive Director Penelope Reed, the production wonderfully captured the whimsy, wit, and mischief in Shakespeare’s quick-moving comedy. There were multiple costume changes, cast rotations, and running on and off stage. The actors from Hedgerow’s Company, summer camp, and theatre school gave a magical performance, captivating an audience of around 125 attendees. 

We were delighted that Hedgerow returned to the  Glen Providence stage after their enchanting enactment of the park’s 1700’s Newlywed Ghost Story and 1800’s Witch Story for the 80th anniversary celebration of the park last Halloween!

Many thanks to all who made Shakespeare in the Park possible: Delaware County Parks & Recreation, Concert Series Sponsors Media Recreation Board and Media Rotary Foundation, Concert Sponsor Sterling Pig Brewery, our volunteers, Marcia Tate for her artful decoration of the stage, the over 125 people who attended, our tireless Concert Chair Lisa Johnson, and of course the talented Hedgerow actors! A special thank you to George Tate not only for taking his usual fabulous photographs, but also for all of his additional help. And thank you to The JMW Entertainment Group for once again providing excellent sound, for an action-packed production!

For the third time this summer, we were saved from temperamental summer weather on our scheduled date – it was clear and breezy on our Sunday, August 7 rain date!

Click on any photo for a closer look, or scroll through them all to see what it was like! Photographs by George Tate.

For the third in four performances in our 2016 Summer Concert Series, Friends of Glen Providence Park is delighted to present Shakespeare in the Park with Hedgerow Theatre! In William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, characters are manipulated by fairies who inhabit the forest where most of the play is set. It is one of the Bard’s most delightful plays!

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Saturday, August 6
4:30-6:00 pm
Glen Providence Park Stage, State Street, Media
Rain date: Sunday, August 7

RAIN DATE UPDATE: With thunderstorms forecasted for Saturday afternoon, we will use our Sunday rain date. The forecast for Sunday is beautiful!

Bring a blanket or chair, and relax on the lawn by the historical stage to enjoy a late afternoon performance! After the play, head into Media for dinner and shopping, just 2 blocks away on State Street. As with all of our events, this performance is free and open to the public.

Thank you:

• Performance Sponsor Sterling Pig Brewery, the exciting new restaurant located on the border of Glen Providence Park, just one block from the main entrance!
• Concert Series Sponsor Media Recreation Board does so much for Media – including summer camp for kids, movies in Barrall Field, the Annual July 4th Celebration, and the Great Media Garage Sale Days.
• Concert Series Sponsor Media Rotary Foundation has been supporting the community by contributing to worthwhile organizations, groups and projects since 1983.
• Delaware County Parks & Recreation has cared for Glen Providence Park since its creation in 1935, and their support makes these concerts possible.

If the weather is questionable, we will post on Facebook and on our website by noon Saturday whether we will use our Sunday rain date.

You can see photos of Hedgerow’s delightful performance of spooky folklore that took place in the park in the 1700’s and 1800’s – for our 80th Anniversary Celebration for Glen Providence Park on October 31, 2015! 

For logistics, and for information on our June, July, and September performances, please see our 2016 Summer Performance Series announcement!

2015 was the 80th Anniversary year for Glen Providence Park! In 1935, prominent Media Borough residents George and Eleanor Reed Butler donated the majority of land for Glen Providence, which would be the first park in the Delaware County system. The Butlers donated the park as a bird sanctuary and arboretum, and specified in the deed they signed on July 24, 1935 that the land be kept “in as natural a condition as possible.” Eleanor named Glen Providence “because of its glen-like formation and as it is located in the heart of the Providence townships.”

It was on Halloween 1935 when James Stokes, the first park guard, began work on the park under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a depression-era jobs program. The WPA built all original park structures, including the entrances, the pavilion, several footbridges, and the concert stage.

The day after the park opened, an article in the Chester Times beckoned the public: “Come with your bird glasses, your flower guides, your tree books. Bring the school children and scout groups, and let Nature teach them her ancient lessons.” Glen Providence has hosted decades of events and activities including nature walks, birdwatching, scouting events, skating, sledding, fishing, fireworks, concerts, Haunted Woods, and the Great Media Easter Egg Hunt!

In 2015, we celebrated and honored the first 80 years of Delaware County’s first park. In addition to our regular monthly events:

• At our Earth Day Celebration, we planted trees by the historical stage with Delaware County officials and Media Providence Friends School students.

• On the anniversary weekend of the park deed being signed, we held an 80th Anniversary Celebration at our July concert – with the Butler grandchildren Eleanor Reed Lewis and Clifford Butler Lewis as guests of honor!

• At our Halloween 80th Birthday Celebration, Hedgerow Theatre performed Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, and enacted the park’s 1700’s Newlywed Ghost Story and 1800’s Witch Story! A costumed audience of almost 200 enjoyed the performance (and birthday cupcakes!) before heading off for trick-or-treating.

Read more about the founding of Glen Providence Park and its Halloween birthday, or explore its rich past on our History Timeline. More photos and details about our 80th anniversary events are in the green links above.

We wish you many more wonderful years, Glen Providence Park!

Photographs by George Tate:

Goblins, ghosts, and witches returned to Glen Providence Park for its Halloween 80th birthday party! Amidst the deepening shadows on the last evening in October, more than 160 revelers came out to celebrate the 80th birthday of Glen Providence Park. 

Witches, scarecrows and the young at heart, making their way toward the glimmering stage filled with jack o’lanterns, descended from the main entrance to Glen Providence Park along a path lighted with glowing luminarias. Trees in full fall splendor reflected the glow of sun setting into the valley below. Lions and tigers and bears clambered up a trail out of the glen to join the spectacle of other brightly colored merrymakers anticipating the first Halloween event in the park in more than twenty-five years.

The lilting voice of Hedgerow’s Grey Kelsey, accompanied by her guitar, filled the air with a medley of spooky songs warming up the crowd for an evening of both tricks and treats by the resourceful and talented actors of Hedgerow Theatre in Rose Valley, America’s first repertory theatre.

The entertainment took a dramatic turn with the narrative “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping…” During his spellbinding performance, Brock Vickers’ footsteps hammered out across the stage, the haunting syncopated rhythm of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven”. Vickers captivated the audience – that spanned all ages, from the first line to the last ‘nevermore.’ Still one of the most memorable poems of all times, it was published by Poe in 1845.

Following the lively “Witches’ Play” with Susan Wefel, Glen Providence Park Board President Stephanie Gaboriault invited the children on stage to blow out a candle on one of the cupcakes commemorating the park’s birthday. Cupcakes were then distributed among the audience and actors who still had room for a little more sugar!

Work started on Glen Providence Park on October 31, 1935 – a fitting birthday considering the glen’s haunted past, as recounted in 1909 in a scrapbook of prominent local physician and historian Dr. Anna Broomall. Two stories of local folklore documented in that scrapbook took place in Glen Providence Park long before 1935, back when it was called Scroggie Valley: a 1700’s Newlywed Ghost Story and the 1800’s Witches Ride. The Hedgerow Ensemble enacted both of these eerie tales,  also recreating a scene from the tavern in one of the stories, with Hedgerow Executive Director Penelope Reed as Dr. Anna Broomall.

Twilight enveloped the park as the evening concluded with Grey Kelsey leading the audience and Hedgerow actors in singing the Hallowe’en song. A parade of costumed characters departed the park for a night of trick or treating on the town.

This celebration exceeded all our expectations and we are so grateful for the many people and organizations that supported this wonderful community event.

Thank you to our Event Sponsor Sterling Pig, the exciting new restaurant and brewery located on the border of Glen Providence Park, just one block from the main entrance. The amazing ensemble actors of Hedgerow Theatre, our wonderful partner in this dramatic event, made the experience fun and brought history to life. Delaware County Parks & Recreation restored the historical stage this summer for the park’s 80th anniversary. They have cared for Glen Providence Park since its creation in 1935, and their support makes our events possible.

And a special round of applause to the many families, friends, neighbors and members of the community who participated whole heartedly in this event!

See the wonderful photos by George Tate for a taste of this bewitching event! Click on any for a closer look, or scroll through them all…

Most photos by George Tate, with additional photos by Stephanie Gaboriault, Holly Hoffmann, and Friends of Houtman Park.

Join Hedgerow Theatre and Friends of Glen Providence Park for a ghostly Halloween celebration of Glen Providence Park’s 80th birthday! Get your trick-or-treaters ready, and bring them for spooky songs and poetry, and a visiting witch at the historical Glen Providence Park stage – then celebrate with birthday cake (what’s a little more sugar on Halloween?). Trick-or-treaters can head off when they like, or stay with older kids and adults for Hedgerow’s staging of fantastical folklore from the park’s past.

Saturday, October 31, 2015
5:30-6:45 (leading into trick-or-treating!)
Glen Providence Park Stage, State Street, Media
* Rain date Sunday, November 1 

Free, family-friendly, & open to the public – costumes welcome!

Work started on Glen Providence Park on October 31, 1935 – so this Halloween is Glen Providence Park’s 80th birthday! It’s a fitting birthday considering the glen’s haunted past, as recounted in 1909 in a scrapbook of prominent local physician and historian Dr. Anna Broomall: “Back in the early days of this region before civilization had turned too strong a light on things occult, the neighborhood was peopled with its full quota of goblins, ghosts and witches…”

Two accounts of local folklore documented in that scrapbook took place in Glen Providence Park long before 1935, back when it was called Scroggie Valley: a 1700’s Newlywed Ghost Story and the 1800’s Witches Ride. Hedgerow will enact both of those strange and eerie tales! Darkening skies, jack-o-lanterns, and majestic trees by the historical stage will lend to the atmosphere:

• As the shadows deepen at 5:30, we’ll start with Spooky Halloween Songs with Grey Kelsey, Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven with Brock Vickers, and Witches’ Play with Susan Wefel.
• At 6:00 we’ll have cake to celebrate the ghostly birthday of Glen Providence Park. Trick-or-treaters can head off when they like.
• As darkness falls, at 6:15 the Hedgerow Ensemble will enact the Newlywed Ghost Story and Witches Ride, with Hedgerow Executive Director Penelope Reed as Dr. Anna Broomall!

Let’s bring goblins, ghosts, and witches back to Glen Providence Park for its Halloween birthday!

Presented by Hedgerow Theatre & Friends of Glen Providence Park
Sponsored by Sterling Pig & Friends of Glen Providence Park
With support from Delaware County Parks & Recreation

Thank you:

• Event Sponsor Sterling Pig, the exciting new restaurant and brewery located on the border of Glen Providence Park, just one block from the main entrance!
• Hedgerow Theatre, our wonderful partner for this community event. This historical theatre in Rose Valley is America’s first repertory theatre!
• Delaware County Parks & Recreation restored the historical stage this summer for the park’s 80th anniversary. They have cared for Glen Providence Park since its creation in 1935, and their support makes our events possible.

* If the weather is questionable, we will post on Facebook and on our website by noon Saturday whether we will use our Sunday rain date.

Dr. Anna Broomall’s scrapbooks are preserved at the impressive Delaware County Historical Society in Chester, PA.