HistoriCorps and Denver Parks and Recreation will lead volunteer efforts to rehabilitate City Park’s historic Lily Ponds in Denver this month.
More than a century old, the Lily Ponds in City Park have deteriorated over the years and are in need of many repairs.
Parks and Recreation (DPR) officials noticed the deterioration and reached out to HistoriCorps to help restore the stone retaining walls and mortar joints, according to spokesperson Stephanie Figueroa.
Supervising and funding the project is DPR, which plans to cover the cost of repairs, pay the HistoriCorps staff, and provide volunteers with food and housing for duration of the project, said Erika Schroeder, the program coordinator at HistoriCorps.
“City Park Lily Ponds provides a special opportunity for our staff and volunteers to engage in a historical landscape project in an urban core that will serve the local communities of Denver,” Schroeder told The Denver Gazette via email.
Historicorps is a nonprofit based in Morrison, Colo., that preserves historic places around America.
While it oversees projects throughout the country, the organization has worked on restoring many historic sites in Colorado as well.
In 2023 alone, HistoriCorps worked on the Centennial House in Jefferson County, Red Mountain Open Space historic horse barn near Wellington, the Yellow Creek Schoolhouse outside of Meeker, the Buckhorn Work Center west of Fort Collins, and the Hunter Creek Road House outside of Aspen, according to Schroeder.
Right now, its main focus in Colorado is Lily Ponds in City Park.
Two, week-long volunteer opportunities will run from July 14-19 and July 21-26.
During these weeks, volunteers will work together on flagstone and mixed stone repointing, as well as repairing stone retaining walls, according to a news release.
HistoriCorps and DPR will provide all necessary tools for the project, group housing for the week, and three meals a day — though local volunteers are welcome to commute.
The upcoming volunteer opportunities at the Lily Ponds reflect a history of pond preservation through volunteer efforts since the pond’s institution.
In 1916, Rev. John L. Houghton started the ponds by donating a variety of pond lily bulbs from his personal collection to Denver City Parks. Nine years later, a new lily pond was constructed during a larger urban-planning movement called City Beautiful, according to Schroeder, who pulled from internal research done by DPR.
The ponds lasted until 1970 when Lily Ponds shut down, and it wasn’t until the late 1990s that DPR and volunteers began to restore the pond through cleaning, planting, and new construction, Schroeder added.
DPR and Division of Motor Vehicles recently suffered a budget cut of $5 million in February that impacted DPR’s daily operations, including seasonal workers, recreation center hours, annual flower beds, and permits for public events, according to Denver Park Trust — the official nonprofit of DPR.
When asked about the connection between DPR’s budget cuts and its request for volunteers on the Lily Ponds, Figueroa said the two were “unrelated.”
In April, Mayor Mike Johnston reversed the budget cuts and planned to return DPR to regular operating hours by June 7.
However, budget cuts still affected the city’s parks, as seen in the spring when Denver citizens complained about parks being overrun with weeds due to an understaffed DPR.
In response, Denver Park Trust encourages volunteers to take care of the parks when budget cuts arise.
“By coming together and supporting one another, we can bridge the gaps left by these financial hardships,” said Denver Park Trust on their website.
July’s volunteer efforts at Lily Ponds are part of a larger project to make improvements to the landscape around the pond, Figueroa told the Denver Gazette in an email.
HistoriCorps is still accepting volunteers for both weeks. Those who want more information on the project or are interested in volunteering should visit HistoriCorp’s website under “City Park Lily Ponds.”
The Denver Gazette’s media partner 9NEWS contributed to this article.
