Construction is finally starting on the new park next to the Greenwood Library. The park, which takes up the entire east side of Greenwood Avenue North between north 81st and 82nd avenues, will feature natural play elements, open lawn, a loop path, plaza with seating, and planted areas, plus a raised crosswalk connecting the park to the library.
The new park is surrounded by chain link fence and construction equipment is parked in the corner.
Construction is scheduled to be completed by late spring 2019. The original plan was for construction to begin last spring and to be completed about now, but that timeline got pushed out.
It will be named Alice Ball Park, after Seattle-born Alice Ball, an African American chemist who developed an injectable oil extract that was the most effective treatment for leprosy until the 1940s. Ball graduated from the University of Washington in 1915 and became the first woman, and first African American, to graduate with a master’s degree from the University of Hawaii. She died at just 24 years old.
