By Richard L. Gaw
Staff Writer

From the time The Kennett Area Park Authority (KAPA) first established its partnership with the Friends of Anson B. Nixon Park, the 106 acres of nature was transformed into a gem of walking trails, music and performance, recreation and community events. 

Over the past two decades, Anson B. Nixon Park has become a destination for runners and walkers, families, schoolchildren, gardeners, frisbee golfers and those equipped with fishing poles who cast their lines and their luck into two ponds and several streams. Purely on the generosity of community and individual support, these two groups have been given the necessary tools they need to turn mere space into a realized vision.

The work to further transform the park, however, is not done.

Recently, KAPA and Friends of Anson B. Nixon Park launched a $7.2 million campaign to restore the park’s historic WaterWorks complex, which is made up of structures that once served as the center of Kennett Square’s public water system from 1876 to 1984 and whose ownership was transferred to KAPA in 1990. The campaign also includes raising a $2 million endowment for the operation of the park, given that only one-third of the park’s funding comes from municipal support.

Currently underway, the campaign is an effort to create a new heritage for these buildings where design meets purpose and form meets function. The four-year project – which began in 2024 and saw the upgrade of the Pole Barn – will include the creation of education and wellness resource classrooms; multipurpose rooms with HVAC and kitchen facilities; a Waterworks Legacy Education Center; a year-round office for KAPA; and a modern Splash Pad and plaza space for visitors.

“When I first began on the board, his whole area belonged to the Department of Public Works, and we told them, ‘These are incredible buildings. We don’t want you to knock them down,’ said KAPA’s past chairman Richard Lyon. “We later conducted an evaluation of the complex and asked, ‘Are these buildings worth saving?’ The answer was ‘Yes.’ 

“We are also a municipal authority without a proper office or storage, maintaining a 106-acre park without a visitors’ center or sufficient public restrooms, so in order for KAPA to be sustainable, we need a certain amount of this space simply to run the park for business needs.”

In many ways, the reimagining of the Waterworks complex is serving as the second phase of the park’s master plan, which first began in 2013 and saw such improvements as new and safer entranceways, additional parking, a stream restoration project, new playgrounds and pickleball courts, upgrades to the basketball and volleyball courts, the establishment of a dog park, community garden upgrades and the restoration of the park’s soccer fields.

‘Revive, Refresh, Renew’

While the long-term plans are firmly in place for the WaterWorks complex, the short-term goal of finding investors is now front-and-center for its Capital Campaign. Given the title “Revive, Refresh Renew,” it has already raised several sizable private donations toward its’ $7.2 million goal, of which $5.2 million will be needed to be raised for building costs and infrastructure upgrades for a two-phased project. To date, early fundraising efforts have already received $700,000 in early donations and contributions.

In a campaign letter to potential large-scale investors in the WaterWorks complex, Capital Campaign Board Member Mark Rybarzyk wrote that making a donation to the campaign “would not only transform the park physically, it would set the philanthropic tone for the entire campaign and serve as a powerful example to others,” he wrote. “Whether made as a one-time gift or pledged over a number of years, your investment would directly launch the restoration efforts and generate immediate momentum.”

“We have made great progress so far in the year and a half we’ve spent getting everything order,” Rybarzyk said. “Our anticipation is to raise about 60 to 70 percent of the funding goal and then seeking donations form the community.”

‘This is the place people come to for beauty’

Lyons sees the WaterWorks Project as playing a vital role not just in the future of Anson B. Nixon Park, but for the entire area – celebrating a community of inclusion. He recalled the ribbon-cutting opening of a new playground adjacent to the WaterWorks complex that took place in 2024.

“The playground was a complicated build for us, but if you go over there and hear the excitement of kids playing, it is all worth it,” he said. “In many places in the world, parks are not always looked upon as positive, but everyone views Anson B. Nixon Park as positive. We talk about everybody needing affordable housing and food, but this is the place people come to for beauty, and that is a human need that it is available to everybody.”

Perhaps the greatest gift of Anson B. Nixon Park, Rybarzyk said, is that the 170,000 visitors who visit the park per year is a celebration of the community’s diversity.

“Anson B. Nixon Park is open for everyone for every socio-economic background, and our goal is to expand this park as an educational bridge to their lives, and one that adds value to their lives,” said Rybarzyk. “The truth is that there are very limited sources for teaching agriculture and horticulture anymore, and with this reimagination of this planned complex, we want to encourage everyone to go outside and play – to give them the opportunity to put a shovel in the dirt and begin to see the fruits of their labor.”

To learn more about the WaterWorks Campaign, email [email protected] or visit www.ansonbnixonpark.org/waterworks.

To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email [email protected].