Of course, the most impressive revitalization project of them all just might be the one that has tied our city together, unifying neighborhoods into a community. In the late 1960s, the Trinity River was not the beautiful watercourse we know and love. Levees built after the historic 1949 flood that turned the Trinity into a one-square-mile lake had reduced the river to a series of stagnant pools filled with trash and muck.

Legend has it that civic leader and whirlwind Phyllis Tilley was driving over the Seventh Street Bridge when she bluntly labeled the Trinity River as “a ditch.” She used her community connections and her considerable powers of persuasion to convince the powers that be that the river was one of our city’s most valuable resources and needed saving.

In 1969, Mrs. Tilley and her cohorts convinced the City to form a Streams and Valleys Committee to, in the words of an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram from 1970, “cleanse, purify, preserve, conserve, develop, improve, beautify, restore, maintain, utilize and adapt for recreational and other uses” Fort Worth bodies of water. The Streams and Valleys Committee morphed into the non-profit Streams & Valleys, Inc. If you’ve ever enjoyed a run along the Trinity Trails or celebrated Mayfest in Trinity Park, you owe Mrs. Tilley and Streams & Valleys your thanks.

Courtesy of Streams & Valleys, Inc.

Mrs. Tilley’s work along the Trinity has continued into the 21^st century. In November, local leaders joined Streams & Valleys and community members for the groundbreaking of Trinity Park Plaza, a gathering place with a butterfly garden, a wildflower meadow, and space for community gatherings.

“Trinity Park was the first city park in Fort Worth,” Lauren Deen, Executive Director of Streams & Valleys, Inc., said when we talked. While the City of Fort Worth had set aside 31 acres of land on the west side of the Trinity for a city park, “there was no Parks Department in the late 19^th century. The City had no money set aside for parks. People wanted green spaces, so the people of Fort Worth came together to raise the funds to transform the land into a park.”

The new plaza is designed to connect the public with nature. “There will be native wildflowers and native grasses,” Deen said. “We want the plaza to be a cool space where families and kids can come out to see wildflowers without having to risk going to the side of the highway.”

In addition to the pollinator garden and the native plants, there will be a grove of 63 Texas redbuds, possumhaw hollies, and desert willows – one tree for each year of Phyllis Tilley’s life. More cedar elms will be planted to provide summer shade and fall color. Deen said, “It was important to us to have color all year long in the plaza.”

Courtesy of Streams & Valleys, Inc.

The revitalization of the Trinity River is a testament to the power of public-private partnerships. Deen, who is the former director of Friends of the Katy Trail in Dallas, said, “Public-private partnerships are so instrumental in civic projects. It’s easy here in Fort Worth because we have so many civic-minded people and organizations who have a vision of what our city could be and are willing to work with our leaders to make Fort Worth better.”

Construction of the new plaza will be finished before Mayfest, Deen said. And she apologized to everyone who uses the temporarily closed Phyllis Tilley Memorial Bridge. “We know it’s frustrating. We’re disrupting people’s lives but just hang with us. It will be worth it, I promise!”

The new plaza project also includes wider trails through Trinity Park. “It’s great to take a park that’s already thriving and make it even better,” Deen said. “We hope the new plaza and Trinity Park will be a gathering place for family and friends to come together overlooking the Trinity for years to come. After all, we’re following in Phyllis Tilley’s footsteps. What we’re doing is changing the shape of the future of Fort Worth.”

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