Cherry Park success had rocky start; celebrates 25 years

For nearly two years in the early 1980s, John Taylor drove to 68 acres off Cherry Road, where plans for a grand city park were being realized.

Taylor spent between 12 and 14 hours at the site each day, talking to various subcontractors and architects, coordinating where irrigation and electrical lines would be placed and learning the area.

He watched the property transform from a mound of red clay and mud to what opened as Cherry Park on Sept. 8, 1985.

With its five lighted softball and baseball fields, four additional fields, five multipurpose fields, 1.5 miles of walking and biking trails, picnic shelters and a control tower, the park has been a big draw for residents and visitors from across the nation.

"The biggest thing I could say is the leaders at the time had a vision, and what they were talking about would be great for locals and also the economy," said Taylor, who is now operations supervisor for the city of Rock Hill's Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department.

"It's a jewel in the city," he said.

'Better than it had to be'

Though Taylor now describes Cherry Park as a "jewel," public response to the announcement that such a park would be built in the city was less than flattering.

At the time, Rock Hill did not have a "first-quality park," said Joe Lanford, former city manager.

"We had a lot of smaller softball fields, but none that set any kind of standard that you would be proud of," he said. "We didn't have fields that were together where we could have tournaments. We didn't have one in the middle of the city that was accessible to the whole community."

The textile industry was declining, and city leaders were becoming eager to enter the sports tourism business.

They formed a vision, a new standard that would raise expectations, Lanford said - not just a ball field, but a highly equipped athletic facility in a park-like setting. It would also feature walking and biking paths as the beginning of a trail system.

Former Mayor Betty Jo Rhea was chairman of the sports complex committee during the park's inception.

"We wanted to make something that was really better than it had to be," she said. "We wanted it not just to be playing fields, but a beautiful place for everybody."

Buying the land didn't cost the city anything. James Milton Cherry, a prominent Rock Hill businessman in the late 1800s for whom the park and Cherry Road are named, had owned acres of alfalfa fields. A graded road had run through his property, from what is now Cherry Road to the Catawba River on U.S. 21.

Members of Cherry's family donated the land that would eventually become Cherry Park to the state for "educational and recreational purposes only," Rhea said. The city received the land from the state.

Once the land was in hand, the city reached out to Robert Marvin of Walterboro, a designer who had also designed the improvements to Glencairn Garden and other major parks in the state.

The vision of a grand city park was in place, but the public wasn't sold on the nearly $4 million publicly funded endeavor, calling it a "boondoggle."

Rhea remembers a radio host calling it the "Red Dirt Cafe."

Current Rock Hill Mayor Doug Echols was on the City Council at the time, and it is believed his and fellow council member Melford Wilson's support for the park led to their losing their council seats, according to the book "The 'Good Town' Does Well: Rock Hill, S.C., 1852-2002," by Lynn Willoughby.

People treated it as a "silly thing," Lanford said. "I think they didn't understand it very well because there wasn't anything we could point to that was like it," he said. "Many of the neighbors felt like it would be a detriment to their neighborhood, so many of them were against it."

It didn't help that the construction was a "big red mud pile."

"It was easy for detractors to go out and take pictures and talk about what a boondoggle it was," he said.

'Big stepping stone'

After the park opened in 1985, both Lanford and Rhea noted a change in the public's perception.

"People who ridiculed it enjoyed walking on the paths at Cherry Park and became proud of it," Lanford said. "Cities are sort of like people. We tended to have a civic inferiority complex for a while, and this was something that was the best that there was anywhere.

"There was a great deal of civic pride about Cherry Park."

Within a year of its opening, the National Softball Association set its sights on Cherry Park.

Hugh Cantrell was the association's chief executive at the time and heard about the park through a director in the Carolinas area. The director's message was this: You have to come see Cherry Park.

"When I got to that complex," Cantrell said, "it was just super. I said to myself, 'I have to work with these people.' All you had to do was see that park one time and you wanted to go back. That's the feeling of most of the coaches I've talked to."

The association played several tournaments in 1986, and since then, the park has hosted more than 200 association-sanctioned tournaments.

Cantrell credits Cherry Park with helping the association became a major player in softball, referring to it as a "big stepping stone." In fact, he said, he sends officials in other cities to the park for an example of how to build their own athletic facilities.

"We hope the partnership continues forever," he said. "It's so well-maintained. They love their softball in that Cherry Park."

'Catalyst for other venues'

Thanks to nationally recognized events such as the softball tournaments, and even more localized ones such as the Area 11 Special Olympics, the park has become a money generator for the city.

Mark Sexton, tourism supervisor for the city, estimates the park has generated more than $120 million in direct economic impact since it opened, making it the most successful of the city's facilities, although Manchester Meadows is catching up.

In 2010 alone, the Cherry Park generated $8.1 million, he said.

"Cherry Park was the first of its kind for the most part," he said. "Our leaders back in the mid-80s had this vision of a softball setting in the middle of a garden-type component. It's an easier sell when you have a quality facility."

Sexton estimates nearly 360,000 people use the park each year. "That's a very conservative estimate," Sexton said.

With the vision of Cherry Park fulfilled, Lanford said it is a vision that has proven itself over time.

"It's been a catalyst for the other venues that the city has developed," he said. "I don't think we would ever have been able to develop the tennis complex or Manchester soccer complex or the velodrome if we had not established that standard of excellence at Cherry Park and if we had not made that park successful."

Rhea noted the park's economic impact and how people have begun to realize the importanance of the park.

"I've got whiplashes on my back, but I'm proud of it," she said of the park. "It's my other child. I have such feeling for it."

Want to go?

A community celebration for Cherry Park's 25th anniversary will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday on the softball fields at the park. A brief program will be followed by activities including an exhibition ball game, music, memorabilia display, and a youth Punt, Pass and Kick competition. The event is free.

This story was originally published September 4, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Cherry Park success had rocky start; celebrates 25 years."