Brick campaign to aid renovation of O’Donnell Square

by Mary Helen Sprecher
newsroom@baltimoreguide.com

Victoria Stewart is a woman with 1,700 bricks to sell.
Actually, she doesn’t have to sell all 1,700. She only has to sell a portion of that in order to break even. But breaking even isn’t the goal here. The goal is to sell all the bricks in order to raise funds for a systematic restoration of O’Donnell Square. It’s all part of a program by the Canton Community Association, the Canton Garden Association and the business partners around the square.
And so far, says Stewart, the response has been encouraging. It seems there are all kinds of people with all kinds of reasons for wanting a personalized brick embedded in the square.
“I’ve been getting all kinds of calls. I heard from a woman whose daughter got engaged on the square. Some people have been calling; they want to put their dog’s name on a brick or their child’s name. Some people want to use them for memorials. People have been e-mailing and telling me they’ve lived in the neighborhood for 60 years and they want their names here.”
The bricks, which cost $60 each, can be custom engraved with up to three lines of print, up to 14 characters per line. Stewart is hoping to sell all of them by sometime in December, in order to have them engraved and ready for placement the following spring. They will be installed on the east and west ends of the square, as borders for new flower beds. (The bricks are similar to those at the waterfront park near the Korean War Memorial. Order forms for bricks can be found on the CCA website, www.cantoncommunity.org).
The restoration of the square is a project which, according to Stewart, is long overdue. The square, although a favorite gathering spot in Canton, needs structural as well as aesthetic improvements in order to live up to its potential.
“There used to be trees, but a lot of those had oak disease and had to be taken out.”
The resultant lack of landscaping has made the square less than appealing at times.
One thing Canton needs to know however, is that the statue of Capt. John O’Donnell stays. He’s not coming down, being moved, being replaced or even being taken away for upgrades.
“John O’Donnell isn’t going anywhere,” said Stewart. “He stays. Of course he stays.”
One change that the captain will see, however, is regular cleaning. Volunteers are working to have the statue put on a list of local monuments that are professionally cleaned (and kept clean according to a schedule) by trained workers.
The rest of the park is in for even more changes. Some work will be carried out by both the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks: installation of new sod, putting in a curb, replacing the missing and dead trees, getting rid of the berms and replacing the old benches with wrought-iron models.
And while all that work needs to be done, there’s plenty more.
“Rec and Parks doesn’t do flower beds,” said Stewart.
So a lot of other work will have to be done by, and funded by, volunteers (which, by the way, CCA and CGA are actively seeking). The groups are seeking to find individuals who will help with planting and weeding, and who are willing to take on stewardship of the square, and to continue to help providing aesthetic maintenance.
The Friends of O’Donnell Square, a small local group, paid for the new ornamental fence that runs down the center of the square in order to channel pedestrian traffic onto the paved paths, and to discourage people from taking shortcuts across the landscaping.
A grant from Parks and People will supplement funding from the bricks and will be used to create flower beds in the park and around the statue itself, as well as to help pay for the regular cleaning of the statue. CCA, the CGA and local merchants would also like to see installation of a new lamp and the addition of some pet clean-up stations.
One thing that may or may not be in the cards is a flag pole.
“We’ve thought about a flag pole, but we’re not sure,” said Stewart. “There’s always the question of who’s responsible for taking the flag up and down every day, and who’s going to maintain it.”
For now, the question can remain unanswered. Stewart is concentrating on other efforts, such as selling the bricks. She is hoping to have all of them ready for placement by May or 2008.
Note: Information on ordering engraved bricks can be found at www.cantoncommunity.org/documents/ods/brickform.pdf.