02/01/99

Officials at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children have enlisted the city's and the community's help to clean up their back yard - Reverchon Park.

"It's our back yard, and we would love for it to be cleaner and more attractive, a nicer place for our patients and families to go," said Peggy Black, a hospital spokeswoman.

The hospital, with the Dallas Park and Recreation Department, will kick off the campaign with a Feb. 27 cleanup day.

Darryl Baker, the city's park planner, said he hopes the revitalization effort will help improve the park's image and make it a friendlier, more enjoyable place for Dallas' residents and visitors.

"We are looking upon this as a really good thing, and we get a better park out of it," Mr. Baker said. "It's a hidden treasure."

The 36-acre park, just north of downtown in Oak Lawn, is named after botanist Julien Reverchon. At the time of his death in 1905, Reverchon's farm housed more than 2,600 species and more than 20,000 specimens of Texas plants; at the time, it was considered the most extensive collection of its kind in the world.

In its heyday, the park was one of the most popular in the city. Until the 1940s, Reverchon sported the city's only lighted baseball diamonds. But in the 1980s and early 1990s, a lack of upkeep, a spate of illegal sexual activity and other criminal behavior marred the park and its reputation, officials said.

Deputy Police Chief D.V. Garcia, who supervises the central patrol division, said the most serious crime problem at Reverchon nowadays is llegal sexual activity.

"We just want to make sure the citizens are aware of our presence out there," Chief Garcia said. "We need to send a message that the city will protect any entity that belongs to it."

Gay cruising at the park has been a long-standing complaint, city officials said, though they said the problem is not as bad as it once was. Ten people were arrested last year on charges of indecent exposure or public lewdness at the park.

"Problems [with public lewdness] in Reverchon have kind of abated considerably than what they were historically," said Capt. E.R. Walt, commander of the vice section. "Reverchon really has not been that big of a problem lately."

During the next few weeks, parks workers are to raise the tree canopies and remove dead trees and unsafe limbs. Volunteers are needed for the cleanup day to rake leaves, clear fallen limbs, plant beds with seasonal color, clear the amphitheater area and pick up trash.

In the future, the hospital hopes to repair and replace DART bus shelters, extend landscaping, restore the park's stonework and create linkages to the Katy and Turtle Creek trails.

"Due to constraints on the park department, they have not been able to keep up the standards that they would like," said hospital volunteer Quinton Johnson, 68, one of the park's advocates. "We want to raise the standards a little bit."

Dallas City Council member John Loza, whose district includes the park and the hospital, said he hopes the initiative will improve the park's image.

"You obviously don't want to have a situation where people are witnessing illegal activity from their hospital rooms," he said. "The park fundamentally is in good shape. But it does need some touch-up work."

Those interested in participating in the cleanup day are encouraged to meet at the Reverchon Park Recreation Center at 7:45 a.m. Feb. 27 for an orientation session. For more information, call (214) 559-7639.