Garden Restoration
In the waning days of the Westport Inn, the magnificent gardens shown in the historic, colored postcards of the Westport Inn in its heyday, could no longer be maintained.
Sometime in the late 1960's the owners of the Westport Inn property paved-over the garden along South Main Street in order to create a parking lot.
Ballard Park's trustees decided that removal of the asphalt and restoration of the garden should be a priority in the development of the park. In 2002 New York State awarded Community Enhancement Funds to remove the asphalt and replace it with topsoil. With privately raised funds a new garden was established.
"Journal of the Massachusetts Audubon Society",
in its Winter 2006-2007 issue devoted to "The Common" included an image of the restored garden in Ballard Park in a photo page titled "The Place Preserved."
pictured left:
from "The Place Preserved"
Public land in the center of Westport, New York
Read the recent Adirondack Life article written by Jo Ann Gardener:
Ballard Park In Bloom: Reimagining a Victorian Garden in Westport
Beach Restoration
In his "Recollections", Jerry Uhl remembers the Westport Inn Beach with these words: "The beach was the center of activity for the younger set for swimming, boating, sunning or hanging out. The swimming was great. The bottom was sandy and clean, hardly any weeds or algae, and no one paid attention to the exposed pipe that carried sewage out into the lake."
Sadly, today this is no longer the case. The stone walls that helped retain the clay bank behind the beach have tumbled down. Weedy trees have invaded parts of the beach, and wave action has carried away the fine sands of the beach eroding the width of the beach and leaving behind a coarse, stonier beach. Fortunately today, Westport has a modern sewage treatment system, and the "exposed pipe that carried sewage into the lake" is gone.
Ballard Park's trustees have determined that restoration of the beach must be the next improvement to made to the park. Plans have been developed for the beach restoration. The permitting process has been initiated. A capital campaign is underway to raise the approximately $25,000 needed for beach restoration.
If you wish to contribute to the capital campaign
please send your contribution to:
Ballard Park Foundation
P.O. Box 96, Westport, New York 12993
Please note on your check "Beach Restoration".