Maya McFadden Photos
Concrete Creations crew at work Wednesday.
Park regulars keep eye on renovations by the "Lyin' Tree."
As a crew repainted the fencing of Edgewood Park’s tennis courts, park regulars like Byron Breland, Ernest Newton, Billy Bostic, and Kerry Ellington watched from a distance cheering on long-awaited renovations to one of New Haven’s communal gems.
That was the scene Wednesday as renovations of Edgewood’s tennis courts entered the second week of what’s expected to be a two-month closure.
City Chief Landscape Architect Katherine Jacobs oversees the estimated $600,000-$625,000 project, which will introduce newly repaved courts, three new pickleball courts, and updated seating and lighting. The project will be funded through the park’s capital funds.
Jacobs drew up the plan with the input of community members who frequently use the park and avid tennis and pickleball players. A company called Concrete Creations kicked off the work last week.
Katherine Jacobs.
Jacobs was on site Wednesday overseeing the repainting of the black court fence poles, which will be reused and touched up and get new wire mesh added later.
The city’s Engineering Department finalized the park plans after a community meeting in January that served up neighbors’ ideas for seating around the courts and the courts’ color. (Click here to read about that meeting.)
The tennis courts will remain closed and protected with construction fencing until they are repaved, the fencing is repaired, and paved court pathways are made from the sidewalk to the court entrances.
Front-Row Seats
The group of regulars watching the off-court action Wednesday included Bostic (pictured above), a retired firefighter who teaches tennis at Hillhouse High School. Bostic is one of several daily park users who are retired and have a love for much-used and much-appreciated Edgewood Park’s liveliness and intergenerational culture.
Everyday Bostic is joined by New Haveners like Newton, Breland, Roosevelt Hairston, and Lawrence Harper, as they sit between the tennis and basketball courts. The group hangs out by what they call the “lying tree,” known as a chill spot where friends “sit around tellin’ lies,” as Breland put it.
The group includes a retired state Supreme Court justice, teachers, coaches, and star athletes, said Breland, a longtime fixture at the lying tree area.
Breland and the others have been keeping an eye on the renovations. Most exciting for Breland is the pickleball courts, a sport he got into as he grew older and strayed away from basketball. Usually he plays pickleball with his family in a court he installed in his backyard.
“Now while I’m out here, I can play too,” he said.
Newton said he loves to come to the lying tree to be with his friends, watch tennis, and enjoy nature daily. Neighbors like Hairston have been hanging out at the park daily for more than 20 years.
The group said they also go to the park daily to keep the peace when disagreements arise. “We want this space to be safe, so we always intervene,” Bostic said.
Remade Courts, Step By Step
Removed light poles.
The wooden light poles at the back of the courts were removed last week and are to be replaced mid-June with metal poles with energy-efficient LED lights Jacobs said.
Once the fencing is repaired, the crew will next fill in the court’s cracks. Then the crew will repave the entire space with a more durable asphalt mix that will be lined with a paving mat made of glass fibers, to provide the court with more protection.
The new asphalt mix will give the court an estimated 20 more years of life and help avoid cracks caused by flooding and constant freezing then thawing during colder months.
Soon-to-be crushed rock border area.
A crushed rock border will line the court fencing on the side that neighbors the workout area. The crushed rock will be a more environmentally friendly way of allowing water drainage to the soil and nearby tree bed, Jacobs said. Asphalt pathways will lead to each of the courts’ entrances from the existing sidewalk.
The bed of crushed rocks will house a few picnic tables and benches for seating to view the court matches.
Jacobs said she is willing to work to adjust seating preferences in the future as neighbors experiment with the usefulness of benches and picnic tables.
The final plan will see no change in the color of the courts, in keeping with the current standard “U.S. Open.” Neighbors requested at the previous meeting that the city avoid a court color that will clash with the tennis ball color.
The addition of three pickleball courts will replace one of what once were seven tennis courts. Jacobs described the conversion as a “happy compromise” and experiment to see if pickleball will be a short-lived fad or the future of sports offered at Edgewood and other areas of the city.
Referring to an idea suggested during the January community meeting, Jacobs (pictured above) said creating hybrid lines on the court to accommodate both tennis and pickleball could possibly cause disagreements over the use of the courts. She said hybrid lines still remain an option for Edgewood in the future if preferred by users. They would be similar to East Shore Park’s hybrid pickleball/tennis courts. Edgewood will for now follow in the steps of Scantlebury Park with dedicated pickleball courts, Jacobs said.
The courts’ practice wall area will be elongated and repaved to better replicate the depth between net and fencing.
In response to concerns about park flooding, the crew will lift the courts a few inches higher off the ground Jacobs said. New fencing will have a maintenance “reveal” at its bottom to make debris easier to remove without leaving enough room for balls to leave the court.
“This area is just designed to flood, unfortunately,” Jacobs said.
After the tennis court renovations, Jacobs said, she would like next to upgrade Edgewood’s basketball court lighting.
The tennis court project will not include wind screens, as a few park users suggested. The idea got pushback from others in the community arguing that the screens limit viewers from watching matches. Jacobs added that the screens can easily be added if preferred by neighbors in the future.
Billy Bostic said he’s happy the wind screens won’t be added, so he can continue watching tennis matches from a distance and without the mesh barrier.
Kerry Ellington: Loves the park, and the park community.
While finishing up a morning workout, Westville resident Kerry Ellington said she looks forward to the court renovations and taking lessons from Bostic this summer.
Bostic said the goal this summer is to get more youth interested in the sport of tennis with the help of the newly renovated courts. He recalled being mentored by local tennis professional Edward Van Beverhoudt while at Edgewood Park.
Ellington ranked Edgewood as her favorite park in the city because it is a safe space to jog, workout, meditate, explore trails, and learn from Black elders and youth all in one place.
“I’m so excited, because this is much needed,” Ellington said. “This is a sacred space for so many people.”
It was the Edgewood tennis courts that sparked Ellington’s interest in learning to play tennis. She took a few lessons from Bostic last summer after meeting him in the park.
“There’s a rhythm and culture to this space that creates a sense of belonging for Black folk,” she said.
She said she hopes to next see an investment in Edgewood’s basketball courts.