Thursday, August 28, 2008

Hidden Park Revisited

Flint Expatriate Sarah Swart recently returned to The Vehicle City and paid a visit to the elusive Hidden Park. Here are the pictures to prove it:


The well-disguised entrance on Chevrolet Avenue.


An abandoned house next to the Chevrolet Avenue entrance. Sara estimates the abandoned houses outnumber the inhabited ones on that block.


The southern end of the park, complete with piles of abandoned magazines.


A look north from from the Chevrolet Avenue entrance, including a little stray garbage.



19 comments:

  1. Thank you Sara for your piece on "Hidden Park"!
    Since it was mentioned on this site several weeks ago I've been wracking my brain to remember where it was, exactly, and have been meaning to post that as a question.

    As a kid, that "hidden", secretive quality held mystery and captured the imagination. It was a frequent walking and biking destination in our Civic Park neighborhood in the 1960's.

    Did it have more than one entrance? If so, where? Was it actually a city-sanctioned park or just a trapped plot of land? (and hence, named by "the people" or officially called that.)

    Thanks again, I enjoyed revisiting!

    Darcy B

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  2. Darcy, just click on the Hidden Park link in this post, and it will take you to the original post on Hidden Park that details all the info on entrances and includes a google map of the park.

    You can also search at the top of the blog for Hidden Park and get all the references.

    And, yes, it is still an officially sanctioned city park. The official name is Dougherty Park.

    It was always a little adventure heading to Hidden Park from Bassett Place.

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  3. That house looks big... I wish I had a house that big. Must have been nice to live there with a park as your backyard... maybe someday it will become one of those gated private parks just for residences... that is if someone purchases all of them as a re-development.

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  4. The first floor of that place is bigger than my house.

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  5. last time I went back to Flint, tried to talk Dad into driving over to my old digs on Chevrolet Ave. He did not want to go, didn't want me to go either. I think I slept out one night in the park...vague recollection.

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    Replies
    1. I would to love to know who this is. I lived on Milbourne and my best friend's house was right up against the park fence. I'm Jeff Varga.

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    2. I lived 2012 milbourne loved growing up there in the 70"s played at hidden park every summer

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  6. It is interesting that the coined name "Hidden Park" has stayed with so many people over the years. As kids of the 50's, we knew it was Dougherty Park, but always called it Hidden Park. It was a place to play, not fear. Too bad for the neighborhood children today.

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  7. Well at least they cut the grass, when I stopped by in late June, it was about 2 feet deep

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  8. Every town has it's weird little parks and playgrounds, but I've always thought places like Hidden Park, McCallum Park Amos Park, Delaware Park, and Polk Park held some sort of strange magic. Was it their compact setting? Rusting slides? Busted hoops? I dunno... think I'll head over to Hardenbrook Park for a little quiet conteplation.

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  9. The Drinkwater family lived in that house (left side of Chevrolet st entrance). Mom and 3 daughters during the 70s. The Purcells owned the house to the right on the Chevrolet st entrance.
    I lived on Welch st, with my back yard where the large metal box (and rope swing) were.
    So many great memories!!!! :-)

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    1. I would love to know who this is! I went to Civic Park. My name is jeff varga.

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    2. Hi, Dr.Kitto and family lived in the white house on corner of Stockdale and Chevrolet. The South end of Hidden Park was adjacent to the Kitto's back yard. Bushes and trees divided the lots. I lived across the street on Welch Blvd from the Kitto's. Stockdale merged into Welch Blvd.

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    3. Joe, this is Pete Plum, we were friends way back then. I lived on Welch and Dupont. I remember you had a brother named Evan I think. Hope you are well.

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  10. Another family home abutting the park was that of Jane and Lynn Kruchevski on Stockdale. They were dear friends of my parents back in the day. Sadly, both passed now. I'm probably slaughtering that name-spelling...sorry, Jane and Lynn.

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  11. If we are looking for hidden park names, I have a couple.
    The Gannons were on Chevrolete (near the Chevrolete St entrance).
    The Blevins and Klecklers were on Milbourne (near the Patterson St entrance). This was during the 50's and 60's.
    While messing around in park, in the mid 50's, a friend shot an arrow high into the air and I heard his shouting just in time to look up and jump out of the way as it came down next to me. Kids seem to have a special kind of protection against stupidity.

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    1. The Blevins lived right across the street from me and right next to my best friend Tim Whidden. I'm Jeff Varga. I'd love to know who this is.

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    2. We were the preville 2012 kilbourne 5 brothers and I was the only girl loved our lives there in the 60'into the 70's

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  12. Loved hidden park in the 60s i lived 2012 milbourne we were the preville's i was yhe only gorl and i had 5 brothers we were at that park every day

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.