March 19, 2024 / By mobanmarket
GREENWICH, CT — Bruce Park, one of Greenwich’s most beloved properties, has once again been nominated for “Best City Parks 2024” by USA Today and their 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards.
An expert panel has nominated their top picks, and now residents can vote once per day until polls close on April 8 at noon ET. The 10 winning parks will be announced on April 17.
In 2023, Bruce Park claimed the fourth spot in the voting. The current leaderboard has the park in 11th place.
“City parks provide space to connect with nature and the community, and the best of them offer a variety of activities and attractions for residents and visitors, from playgrounds and community gardens to skate parks and live performances,” USA Today’s 10Best said on its website. “We’re celebrating these verdant havens by looking for the best city parks across the United States.”
Robert Moffat Bruce donated his home, which is now the Bruce Museum, and 100 acres to the town of Greenwich in 1908, making the property the town’s oldest public park.
The park includes sports and athletic fields, tennis courts, walking paths, ponds and waterways, and scenic views of Long Island Sound. It also features a popular playground for families, and has been the home for various cookouts, events and charity races.
First Selectman Fred Camillo called Bruce Park one of the “true town jewels.”
“Having grown up here, I’ve spent probably as much time in that park as any other one,” Camillo told Patch.
The Fourth of July fireworks used to be held at the park in the summer, and in the winter, it was the place everyone went for ice skating.
“The big pond would freeze over and they’d have hot chocolate being sold on the side, and music playing,” Camillo said. “It was really a Norman Rockwell-type history for that park, and certainly this nomination is well deserved.”
Camillo highlighted recent efforts to preserve the park.
“The latest endeavor is to get this before the RTM, this effort to give it a historic designation where we would put to bed any attempts to build things in that park,” Camillo said.
The idea for the designation first came about after there were brief discussions about expanding the old “mosquito barn” on the eastern side of Bruce Park to facilitate the possible move of the Parks and Recreation building out of Roger Sherman Baldwin Park.
Residents were concerned about the idea and plans that could change the park, so they reached out to Camillo.
Camillo assured the residents that Parks & Rec. operations would not be moved there. Since the town had always tried to protect Bruce Park, Camillo suggested seeking a local historic property designation.
The town’s Historic District Commission is seeking to establish the property as a Local Historic Park, which would help protect it against future, unwanted development. The RTM has yet to weigh in.
The state Historic Preservation Council voted to approve the HDC’s study report on Bruce Park and the potential designation last November.
HDC Chair Stephen Bishop noted to the P&Z Commission last September that town administrations change, and so do the “infrastructure guardians” of the town, and in the future, without the designation, “they might decide they want to do things that really could hurt the park tremendously.”
“While we try very hard to accommodate changes that seem reasonable, or necessary or advisable, there are always limits, and that’s really the important thing,” Bishop said.
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