The New Friends of Duncan Park

The original Friends of Duncan Park organization was formed in 2005 by a concerned group of citizens in response to the deterioration and potential loss of Duncan Park Stadium, the grand old lady just off Union Street which at that point had proudly stood for 80 years as a beloved local landmark.

The Spartanburg Phillies had departed a dozen years earlier for the greener pastures and new stadium promised them by the City of Kannapolis, North Carolina. The Phillies would not remain in Spartanburg unless the City seriously upgraded Duncan Park stadium, a facility no longer suitable for a modern Minor League team, and the City would not upgrade the stadium without a long-term commitment from a Minor League team. The impasse proved insurmountable, and none of the successor wooden bat league and independent teams that had played at Duncan Park since 1994 had been able to draw enough fans to afford to make the necessary repairs and renovations themselves.

The Friends of Duncan Park, led by Lenny Mathis, stepped up to the plate and temporarily staved off the immanent wrecking ball with a combination of hard work, publicity, local lobbying, fundraising, thoughts and prayers. Three years later the signing of a surprise letter of intent agreement between the City of Spartanburg and Spartanburg County School District Seven saved the old stadium, and subsequent expenditures upgraded the functionality of the structure so that it was at least safe and usable if not Minor League-compatible.

Today, fifteen years later, the recent announcement of the proposed construction of a new Minor League stadium in the Grain District downtown plus the planned relocation of the Class A Down East Wood Ducks from Kinston, North Carolina, while good news for the City and its baseball fans, have raised new questions about the sustainability of Duncan Park stadium for the long haul. Would the stadium survive the diversion of local interest and, potentially, funding? Would the long-established Greenville Drive, a successful affiliate of the Boston Red Sox in nearby Greenville, attempt to quash the new team? Would local citizens continue to go to high school and American Legion games at Duncan Park if they had to compete against a new Minor League team just a mile or two away?

One hopeful response to these developments was the renewed commitment by both the City and School District Seven to the old stadium. In a June 2023 meeting at City Hall attended by representatives of the two institutions plus officials from the Spartanburg County Public Libraries, American Legion Post 28, the Youth Sports Bureau, the Harry Dallara Foundation, and myself, the 2008 City/District Seven agreement was reaffirmed. Assistant City Manager Mitch Kennedy and former Superintendent and consultant Dr. Thomas White both expressed their organizations’ long-term devotion to the preservation and maintenance of the stadium, although both also indicated that their groups would likely re-prioritize their plans and future funding as they continued to assess the impacts of the new stadium, team, and commercial development downtown.

A meeting convened two weeks later by Laura Ringo, the Executive Director of PAL (Play. Advocate. Live Well) Spartanburg—formerly Partners for Active Living—and Bill Lane, a landscape architect for the National Park Service - Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance program who had been consulting with PAL, resulted in additional optimism regarding the future of Duncan Park, both the stadium and the larger facility including pedestrian and bike paths, tennis courts, youth fields, an amphitheater, and a small lake. Attendees at this mid-June meeting included, in addition to Ringo and Lane, David Theiss (the PAL Trails Coordinator); Kim Moultrie (City of Spartanburg Parks and Recreation Director); Luther Norman (Director of the Youth Sports Bureau); Cierra Kelly (Executive Project Director for ReGenesis Health Care); almost a dozen others who were either residents of neighborhoods adjacent to Duncan Park, walkers, runners,  cyclists, baseball coaches, or users of other park facilities; and myself.

The agenda for this meeting at the C. C. Woodson Community Center was headed “Duncan Park Revitalization Plan,” and its purpose was to discuss the goals and objectives of a Friends of Duncan Park organization, to begin drafting a Mission Statement for the group, to consider possible project ideas to facilitate planning, and to review current and likely future sources of funding. The new Friends of Duncan Park convened again after reflecting on the topics of this meeting for a month, also at C. C. Woodson, and met once more in August.

The renewed interest in the possible futures of Duncan Park comes at a fortuitous time. The local economy is booming, population is growing dramatically (fueled in part by an influx of young professionals from other regions), the City is completing a thoughtful and engaging redevelopment plan for Morgan Square downtown, and the new commercial/sports/residential complex behind the AC Hotel promises a wide range of new opportunities and experiences that can only be imagined today.

Specific plans for Duncan Park are still being developed, as is the process of identifying and securing the necessary funds for the realization of these dreams. Details can be found at the Friends of Duncan Park website: https://duncanparksc.org/. The site contains links to the Revitalization Plan, trail maps, a calendar of upcoming events, news (including meeting minutes), and additional resources. The next meeting of the Friends will be at 5:30 PM on Thursday, September 28th, at the C. C. Woodson Center. Meetings are open to the public, and City residents, citizens living in neighborhoods near the Park, and anyone interested in the recreational facilities and future development of this unique City property are invited to attend. The Friends can be reached via email at duncanparksc@gmail.com.