Downtown Olympia is heavily gentrified in the style of its bohemian residents. The walls are covered in murals and the people wear various eclectic layers of clothing in their own particular edgy style. Almost everyone has sunglasses on - it's sunny when Gabriela and I are there, but it was raining not a half hour prior. The sun was, as it often is in Washington, just teasing the possibility of summer between dreary spouts of rain. There is no humility in downtown Olympia, just unbridled pride in the artistic expressions of its community.
In the midst of all of this gentrification is a small bastion of nature so minute that, even though I was looking for it, I walked completely past it. It doesn't help much that the location I was seeking is marked by a small plaque no more than a couple inches in length and a laminated paper sign asking pedestrians to please keep off the grass!
What grass? I'm looking for Beatty Memorial Park! Well, we found it - Gabriela and I. It was right where we were told it would be, on 5th Ave right in front of Buck's Fifth Avenue. The park is no more than a tuft of grass sticking out of a crack in the sidewalk. The plaque (which has been returned or replaced after being stolen in 2015) and the laminated paper sign are the only indicators that this tuft of grass is actually recognized by the city of Olympia as an official memorial park.
Finding this treasure was exciting for me. I had been led to believe that Beatty Memorial Park was going to be another regimented display of grass presented in a nice clean circle on the sidewalk. The reality was something that looked like nature doing its thing. The real story behind it, however, is a little more complicated. In this case, Nature isn't doing its thing entirely on its own.
Mary Lou Beatty was a longtime resident of Olympia, and she volunteered as a bookkeeper at Buck's Fifth Avenue. Every year for her birthday she'd pour grass seeds into the cracks in the sidewalk in front of the store and declare them to be her memorial park. When she died, loving family and friends carried through her decision and the city of Olympia made the park official. A horticulturalist from Evergreen university even brought miniature sheers down to keep the grass properly mowed in the park for quite some time after it opened.
What appeals to me about Beatty Memorial Park, though, is that it looks like Nature struggling to reclaim the city, but it's actually human beings helping Nature struggle to reclaim the city. It's discreet enough to be an oft-overlooked kitschy attraction in the art district of Olympia. The discretion of the park is a by-product of its regular grooming. Although it is scruffy for a tuft of grass, it isn't allowed to grow out of control. This is another case of humankind caging nature for its amusement - the Beatty Memorial Park is a sort of urban grass zoo.
The park was quite a fascinating discovery, and it makes me wonder what other wonders Olympia is hiding in plain sight.
In the midst of all of this gentrification is a small bastion of nature so minute that, even though I was looking for it, I walked completely past it. It doesn't help much that the location I was seeking is marked by a small plaque no more than a couple inches in length and a laminated paper sign asking pedestrians to please keep off the grass!
What grass? I'm looking for Beatty Memorial Park! Well, we found it - Gabriela and I. It was right where we were told it would be, on 5th Ave right in front of Buck's Fifth Avenue. The park is no more than a tuft of grass sticking out of a crack in the sidewalk. The plaque (which has been returned or replaced after being stolen in 2015) and the laminated paper sign are the only indicators that this tuft of grass is actually recognized by the city of Olympia as an official memorial park.
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| Please keep off the grass! |
Mary Lou Beatty was a longtime resident of Olympia, and she volunteered as a bookkeeper at Buck's Fifth Avenue. Every year for her birthday she'd pour grass seeds into the cracks in the sidewalk in front of the store and declare them to be her memorial park. When she died, loving family and friends carried through her decision and the city of Olympia made the park official. A horticulturalist from Evergreen university even brought miniature sheers down to keep the grass properly mowed in the park for quite some time after it opened.
What appeals to me about Beatty Memorial Park, though, is that it looks like Nature struggling to reclaim the city, but it's actually human beings helping Nature struggle to reclaim the city. It's discreet enough to be an oft-overlooked kitschy attraction in the art district of Olympia. The discretion of the park is a by-product of its regular grooming. Although it is scruffy for a tuft of grass, it isn't allowed to grow out of control. This is another case of humankind caging nature for its amusement - the Beatty Memorial Park is a sort of urban grass zoo.
The park was quite a fascinating discovery, and it makes me wonder what other wonders Olympia is hiding in plain sight.
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