Click Here: A Taste Of Swiss

Four Swiss Avenue homes will offer cuisine, cocktails, music and entertainment from around the world at “A Taste of Swiss” on Saturday, October 10. Italy, Brazil, India and Turkey will be represented at this fundraiser benefitting the Friends of Buckner Park. With passports in hand and the leadership of a tour guide, guests will tour each home experiencing the flavors, music and entertainment representative of each country’s culture. Tickets for this event are $100 per person and are available for purchase online at www.friendsofbucknerpark.org or in person at Needless Necessities (2926 N. Henderson Ave.) and Talulah Belle (2017 Abrams Rd.). Check-in will be from 6:30 to 7:00 pm at 5001 Swiss Avenue.

“A Taste of Swiss” is organized by residents of the four East Dallas historic districts (Swiss Avenue, Peak’s Suburban Addition, Munger Place and Junius Heights) and the Friends of Buckner Park as a fundraiser benefiting the restoration of Buckner Park. This neighborhood park, located at the corner of Worth Street and Carroll Avenue in Old East Dallas, also serves as the Ignacio Zaragoza Elementary School playground. Buckner Park is situated at an important gateway intersection linking Old East Dallas with Lakewood, Downtown, Fair Park and Deep Ellum. Unlike the timeless homes restored in the area, the park has deteriorated over time and has suffered from vandalism and neglect. The Friends of Buckner Park was formed to restore the park and make it a beautiful retreat for the entire community to enjoy.

“So far the community has been overwhelmingly supportive of the endeavors of the Friends of Buckner Park,” Andrea Nicholas, Friends of Buckner Park president, said. “Our vision for the park includes a walking trail, new playground equipment, a pavilion and a venue for both neighborhood and family picnics as well as annual fundraising events that will benefit the park and its restoration.”

A Taste of Swiss will be the second fundraiser held for Buckner Park, following the successful spring wine tasting held at Veritas Wine Cellars.

“A Taste of Swiss is a unique opportunity for our guests to spend an intimate evening, with an international flair, in four beautifully restored early 20^{th Century Swiss Avenue homes,” Larry Waisanen, co-chairman of the event, said. “In addition to raising funds for the park, we want this event to help to create an awareness in the broader community of the tremendous opportunity that the restoration of this historic City Park offers to East Dallas and the surrounding area.”}

Formed in 2006, the Friends of Buckner Park is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization created to revitalize Buckner Park in partnership with Dallas Parks and Recreation Department and make it a clean, safe, urban green space for the community.

Mark you calendars now.  Space is limited for this event and you won’t want to miss this unique opportunity to enjoy international cocktails and hors d’oeuvres in four beautiful, historic Swiss Avenue Homes (including the well known Bishop Lynch and Frank Lloyd Wright inspired Higginbotham homes). 

Sponsors for this event include the Swiss Avenue Historic District, Ryan Thebeau State Farm Agency (Gaston Avenue at Haskell) and Millett the Printer.  Proceeds from “A Taste of Swiss” will benefit Friends of Buckner Park (a 501(c)3).

Event tickets may be purchased with a donors’ contribution of $100 to Friends of Buckner Park. In exchange for this contribution, donors will receive a dining experience worth an estimated fair market value of $35. Therefore, for Federal income tax purposes, contribution deduction is limited to $65.

1023 Application for Recognition of Exemption

 Friends of Buckner Park 501(c)3

By Becky Bull

Elizabeth Nelson was shocked when she moved into Peak’s Addition and saw Buckner Park for the first time.

She had moved from Savannah, Ga., a city known for its parks.

“Parks are the center of the community in Savannah,” says Nelson, who is second vice president of the Peak’s Addition Homeowners Association and has guided the neighborhood’s effort to renovate the park.

“They are highly landscaped and beautiful. I was surprised that some of the parks in Old East Dallas are flat.”

And flat puts it nicely when it comes to Buckner Park, located at Worth and Carroll. It has no sidewalks or landscaping. Huge soccer fields take up most of the land. Its baseball diamond is never used. And an eight-foot chain link fence surrounds a playground that is shared by Zaragoza Elementary and the neighborhood.

Very few neighborhood residents use the park regularly. But after much talking and planning, residents from Peak’s Addition, Munger Place and Swiss Avenue are making a push to start renovating the park this year.

“We’ve got to get something started,” says J.W. Brasher, president of the Peak’s Addition neighborhood association. “Even if it’s just throwing some dirt with a shovel.”

The project will be kick-started by $600,000 available for the park from a 2003 city of Dallas bond program. Neighborhood residents will raise additional money from individuals and businesses. Proceeds from both the Peak’s Addition and Munger Place home tours will go toward the renovation.

Michael Hellman, a manager in the park planning and acquisition section of the city’s Park and Recreation Department, began working on a redesign plan many years ago, updating the original plans developed by George Kessler of Kessler Park in Oak Cliff. Kessler was a famous Dallas landscape architect in the early 1900s who created a design for Buckner Park that never was implemented.

“I felt it was very tired,” Hellman says of the park. “It needs a facelift. Currently, it’s not responsive to the community.”

The plan calls for a new parking lot and drop-off zone for Zaragoza. Currently, the school’s staff doesn’t have enough parking, and students are dropped off on Worth Street, very close to where dump trucks pick up the school’s garbage. The new drop off, which Dallas Independent School District will pay for, will be on the opposite side of the school and will create a new school entrance.

The park’s centerpiece will be a new pavilion. Trees, plants and winding sidewalks will replace the soccer fields and baseball diamond. Existing tennis, basketball and volleyball courts will stay. When the new design is finished, the park will be a centerpiece for the community.

“I think it’s necessary for neighborhoods to have that outdoor space for people to gather rather than driving to another neighborhood,” Nelson says. “It should be the core of the neighborhood.”

Buckner Park is located at the corner of Worth Street and Carroll Avenue in Old East Dallas. It is adjacent to Zaragoza Elementary. The Park is named after Dr. R. C. Buckner, the landowner at the time and the founder of Dallas’ well known Baptist benevolence, Buckner Children’s Home. The park opened in the summer of 1915. Buckner Park was a center of social and cultural life offering a wading pool in 1920 and by 1923 free outdoor movies. After World War II the surrounding neighborhoods declined and so did the park. In recent years, many of the homes have been restored thanks to dedicated homeowners however, the park has not adequately benefited from this movement of restoration. J.W. Brasher, President of the Friends of Buckner Park Board, states “concerned neighbors who are passionate can really make a change in his or her community. I am glad to see four neighborhoods working together on this project to make this change happen.”

We invite you to join us in the quest to revitalize a local heritage and make it again a community gathering place. The Dallas Parks and Recreation Department has agreed to dedicate funds and personnel to improve the park. La Popular Tamale House, the Munger Place Homeowners’ Association and the Swiss Avenue Homeowners’ Association have all generously donated seed money to this project. The Friends of Buckner Park is seeking membership, volunteers, sponsorship and donations.

For more information about this exciting endeavor, contact any of the following FOBP Board members:

• JW Brasher,  President
• Andrea Nicholas,  Vice President
• Sharon Van Buskirk,  Secretary
• Courtney Buterbaugh,  Treasurer
• Jill Pridavka,  Marketing & PR
• Sandy Doss,  Marketing & PR
• Jim Anderson,  Design/Implementation
• Brandon Castille,  Membership
• Janet Staring,  Fundraising
• Tanya Rodriguez,  Marketing & PR
• Brian Jackson,  Marketing
• Evelyn Montgomery,  Grants
• Larry Waisanen,  Fundraising
• Zelman Brounoff,  Photography