A decade ago, a 32-acre swath of land at the heart of Gainesville was an unusable wasteland. Now, it’s a lush park celebrating its 10th anniversary.
Kim and Andrew Mitchell have lived in Gainesville for 24 years. Andrew Mitchell said he remembers the old, fenced-off lot.
“It was like a dump,” Andrew said.
But now, he and his family come to the park every Saturday for “parkrun,” a weekly 5K event held there. In their eyes, the park changed the surrounding area for the better, he said.
“South Main Street is what it is partially because of the park,” Andrew said.
Almost 170 years ago, Depot Park was a train stop joining eastern and western Florida, said Marissa Brinkman, Depot Park’s recreation supervisor.
“It was the only train depot within the area that connected those two parts of Florida,” Brinkman said. “So because of that, the whole city pretty much exists.”
Trains passing through the station transported pigs, oranges and, eventually, people.
But when trains became a less popular form of transportation, Brinkman said, the depot became home to multiple factories, including a diesel gas plant and a manufactured gas plant over the years.
Harmful materials from these factories and plants seeped deep into the soil, turning it into a brownfield site, an area of land so soaked with chemicals and other contaminants that it is unusable.
“For a long time, this area just sat being a toxic contamination zone,” Brinkman said.
About 20 years ago, the city of Gainesville began planning to turn the dead zone into something for the community, she said.
An effort named “The Big Dig” began to remove the bad soil and water from the area. Excavating 50 feet deep, around 178,000 tons of soil was removed, Brinkman said.
The hole was lined with mesh, and fresh, clean soil replaced the old dirt. Finally, in the summer of 2016, Depot Park broke ground.
Now, in addition to being a third space — a place for socializing outside your home or workplace — for residents and families, the park serves another purpose.
Its retention ponds collect rainwater from around the city, which eventually becomes drinking water.
Any trash the water carries is caught by “trash traps,” Brinkman said. Oil or sediment in the water sinks to the bottom of the pond, and the top layer of clean water moves onto the next pond.
The cleaner water then travels to Sweetwater Wetlands Park, Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park and finally an aquifer, where it becomes drinking water.
“It’s a whole crazy thing they put together,” Brinkman said. “It's awesome, though.”
The original effort to revive the old brownfield was an experiment, she said. They weren’t sure it would work.
Parkgoers may see small, metal manhole covers on the ground as they walk. They cover wells used to check the soil and water for contamination.
“We started with over 200 testing wells here in the park,” she said. “Today, we have 13.”
This accomplishment is ahead of schedule, she said. Only half of the testing wells were expected to be closed in the first decade.
More than 100 people went to Depot Park on Aug. 1 to celebrate this accomplishment and its birthday.
The start of the event had activities for families and children to enjoy, including a performance from DJ Mellow Blendz.
“I would go to a club just to go dancing,” Erin Odea, a 33-year-old Gainesville resident, said. “Because this guy is great.”
Her 3-year-old daughter joined Odea. Because they live close, she said it’s like their “second home.”
“Being that I have a 3-year-old, it's just a necessity,” Odea said.
She heard about the event through Facebook and the Depot Park website, she said. Her daughter especially loved the train that went around the park.
Around 9 p.m., the Hometown Homegrowns, a one-time-only band created from members of Pet Detectives and Mamish, took the stage. Multiple other local musicians joined them throughout the performance.
Brinkman said a couple of the band members were at the park’s groundbreaking ceremony. Some had worked on a theme song for Depot Park when it first opened, she added, under the band name Bears and Lions.
Visitors can request a free tour on the Depot Park website to learn more about the historic project in the center of downtown.
“The park itself, it’s really an example of environmental restoration and stewardship,” said Brinkman. “It’s about historic preservation and economic revitalization.”
Addison Gload is a contributing writer for The Alligator.
