It has been a few years since Trish Wellman stepped out on her front porch, hollering across the street for her son, Cameron, to stop playing and come home.
Cameron, now 26, loved gathering with a group of kids who would pop helmets on their heads or pick up shields and battle with wood swords to victory.
Wellman’s son and her two other children may have outgrown the space now known as Lincoln Commons, but others have taken their places.
“I love seeing kids out there running and flying kites in the springtime with their moms and dads,” Wellman said. “Now and then, I see kids about later-grade-school age kicking a ball.”
Soon, changes to the green space where Lincoln Elementary once stood between Eighth and Ninth streets from Euclid to Grange avenues will draw even more children and adults.
The first steps were taken when concrete was poured for pathways to take pedestrians around Lincoln Commons.
Signs designed by Shon Roti, who lives in the area with wife Lura, will be installed this fall after students at the Sioux Falls School District’s Career and Technical Education Academy complete their assembly.
Next spring, a basketball court will be installed, and other enhancements such as flower beds, a pergola and a possible dog park are in the works over the next three to five years.
A ribbon-cutting for Lincoln Commons will take place at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 30.
A unique asset will be historic playhouses that depict familiar homes in the neighborhood and structures such as the old firehouse on Minnesota Avenue. They will be designed to spark children’s imaginations, said Daniel Hauck, committee chair. “We’re also hoping they will take on little civic duties in their imaginative play,” he said.
All the changes that are turning this school district property into a park that will serve multiple neighborhoods are coming about through the cooperation of the Sioux Falls School District, the Cathedral Historic and Pettigrew Heights neighborhoods, the city of Sioux Falls and its Parks & Recreation Department and philanthropic citizens and organizations.
The most recent funding, a check for $10,000 to be presented at the ribbon-cutting, comes from Sioux Falls Beautiful, an informal organization founded 40 years ago by the late Tom Kilian, a local educator and writer.
“This is Tom Kilian’s legacy,” Mary Ellen Connelly said. “He started this little group probably 40 years ago, and the (Mary Jo Wegner) Arboretum came out of this. He always had these great ideas about just bettering town and communities, and for years, we just met and talked about what made an environment beautiful.”
Connelly and her husband, Paul, had earlier contributed $250,000 toward making Lincoln Commons a reality, working through the Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation, and an anonymous donor has pledged $100,000 in matching contributions.
The impetus to develop Lincoln Commons came several years ago when neighbors learned about the possibility of housing going up there.
“This whole project began with more than 100 neighbors saying this land matters to us and we need to keep it as a green space for people to enjoy,” Lura Roti said. “When neighbors brainstormed all the dreams they wanted to see happen, the Sioux Falls School District said absolutely, as long as funding came through. People who are excited about something can actually make a difference.”
With no current plans to rebuild a school on that site, the school district is pleased that the block will serve the neighborhood, particularly the children who live there, Superintendent Jamie Nold said.
“It will really serve a multitude of purposes that benefit the well-being of kids and families, and it will be a useful learning area for kids at Axtell Park,” he said. “It’s been a great venture to see how we can utilize this to help families and youth. There’s no expenditure of any Sioux Falls School District dollars per se, so hats off to the community for fundraising the money.”
Another donation has come from former City Councilor Greg Neitzert. He contributed a bike rack to Lincoln Commons, Roti said. The neighborhood also has taken multiple opportunities to improve the land.
“We had 40 neighbors turn out to plant trees, and the city of Sioux Falls donated water for the garden, and because the water was donated, we didn’t need to charge the gardeners (in the community plot). Their in-kind donation was that once a week they would water the trees,” Roti said. “The city of Sioux Falls is a great partner in this as well.”
The city also has been responsible for mowing the grass at Lincoln Commons. A neighborhood grant that the city awarded to the neighborhood paid for hoses used to water the trees. Recently, the neighborhood learned three ash trees need to be vaccinated against the emerald ash borer; three neighbors stepped up and offered to take care of it.
The signs that soon will be erected at Lincoln Commons are also a joint public-private cooperative effort. The Rotis paid for them. The work is being done by Christopher Benshoof’s students at CTE.
His students are learning lessons such as what to do when the coding needed for the designs is so long that the computer chokes on it, delaying progress, Benshoof said. They learned they needed to do the work in smaller batches.
They’re also learning the nuances that large projects – 8 feet long in this instance – will require of them, how to put together a budget and how to determine costs. His welding students also have worked on other projects such as the keyway sculpture titled Passage in The Steel District and installing the Arc of Dreams.
Soon, the students will be able to point to the Lincoln Commons signs as a contribution they have made to their community, Benshoof said.
“I always tell these kids it’s cool to say ‘I built that. I built that sign, or that sign came from my classroom,’” he said.
Hauck and Rebecca McKeever are applying for grants to bring the historic playhouses to Lincoln Commons. McKeever lives several blocks away from the green space in the Cathedral Historic District. Hauk lives several houses down from Axtell Park School.
“I really hope it comes to fruition,” McKeever said. “It’s something that I’ve seen bits and pieces in other playgrounds, but we don’t really have anything like that here.”
As public schools have consolidated, the neighborhood has fewer places to play that are within easy walking distance, she said. That’s one reason she didn’t want the space to go away and is working to enhance it.
“The idea for the historic play area is to have multiple small playhouses that are just platforms and facades, making it easy for parents to see their kids play,” McKeever said. “Our original vision was like 12 structures, but we’ve pared it down to five or six as an attainable goal to start with.”
One play structure will be that of the old Lincoln Elementary. Another could represent one of the Queen Anne-style houses that feature prominently in the Cathedral neighborhood.
Hauck, an assistant preschool teacher who often takes his photography hobby to Lincoln Commons, said the playhouse platforms will be flush with the ground to make them accessible to children who use wheelchairs. A wax-based paint that is less likely to flake or chip would be used to coat them.
“The best part is that it’s going to be a neighborhood project,” Hauck said. “We’re going to contact local woodworkers, and we may also use a CTE class. My idea is that it would be based around the school. We would dedicate the play area to teachers in the Sioux Falls School District, and I would want to name it after the first principal of Lincoln Elementary, Sue Slocum.”
The playhouse committee’s goal is to raise $15,000 and to install the structures next summer. Additional funding is needed for turf and more traditional playground features, McKeever said.
Having the pathways put in place will draw more people to Lincoln Commons, McKeever said. Favorable weather could lure customers at the nearby Perch restaurant to use the walking paths after dining.
Connelly is also happy that the pathways have been poured.
“It’s really cool,” she said. “It’s a chance to see a difference right away on a project that might have taken a few more years to get going. It’s nice to be part of that, to make a difference.”
In many ways, the ideas that will turn Lincoln Commons into a green and growing place were sparked 40 years ago when Kilian challenged a group of people to think about giving back, Connelly said.
“Seeds planted 40 years ago do eventually bear fruit,” she said. “I hope by next year to somehow meet with other nonprofits in core neighborhoods to make sure they know small grants are available.”
From her house, Trish Wellman said, she can see beautiful sunsets over Lincoln Commons. While her own children are grown, she is thankful that other children will benefit from a park that offers imaginative activities, a basketball court and a space to just run.
Wellman has lived across from Lincoln Commons for almost 20 years. In a neighborhood where houses are thick and yards are small, having the open space is an asset, she said.
“At some point, the plan is to put a gazebo in the park,” she said. “I think it will be beautiful. I can imagine walking to it to just sit and watch the kids.”