Terra, gardener, Jay Brothers, and horticultural consultant, Keith Kaiser planted ten native trees in the Great Tree Lawn as the first installation of Phase One of the Master Landscape Plan for the Park. Located in Columbiana, Ohio, Firestone Park was a gift of Harvey and Idabelle Firestone in 1933, and the Restoration and Beautification Committee of Columbiana has been the force behind its restoration more than 85 years later. The legacy trees were grown from hand-harvested seed collected by Tree Pittsburgh, a grassroots organization in Pittsburgh that aims to improve the health of our urban forests.
Terra and our team, HRG, Keith Kaiser, and Iams Consulting, completed the Master Landscape Plan in November 2019, and we are in the process of preparing Phase One for bid. With an estimated completion date of December 2020, Phase One’s construction cost is approximately $2 million. The star of the show is a 1/2-mile long Legacy Trail that invites visitors to explore multiple historic points of interest within the Park, beginning with the Hanna Family’s Homestead, the first settlement in Columbiana County in 1812 to Harvey Firestone’s Lookout, where the Columbiana native and rubber tire magnate enjoyed overseeing construction of the Park in 1935.
Although not officially called an arboretum, it well could be. Amongst acres of display gardens, we will be planting more than 150 trees at the Park’s historic pavilions and in the Great Tree Lawn, keeping landscape architect Alling DeForest’s vision for the Park intact for the next 85 years.