Frenchtown's Eco Park Trailhead Gets a Makeover

A small rather non-descript green space tucked into a southwest section of St. Charles’is emerging as an interactive area with the moniker “Eco Park Trailhead.”

With access to the Katy Trail, the one-acre Trailhead area at the end of Olive Street has a new gazebo, a rain garden area and a statue of children playing on a log.

DuSable Park, along the Missouri River, has four sections—the , , the and , explained St. Charles Parks and Recreation Director Maralee Britton.

The Eco Park actually has two sections—one from the boat ramp along the riverfront on the east side of the levee and the other is the Eco Park Trailhead in the 1800 block Second Street, she said.

DuSable Park as it is today may well be one of the few good things to come of the floods of the early 1990s.

Prior to the floods, “there was only Bales Park,” Jim Phillips, maintenance superintendent for the parks department, said. But following the floods, the city acquired the houses, trailer park and businesses in the surrounding area and expanded the park into what it is today.

The city developed a master plan for the park in 1999 but development of the Trailhead area, sometimes known as the “Wilkinson Tract,” had to wait until the city decided what to do with it and found money to develop it, Phillips said.

Crews are still installing cedar shake shingles on the gazebo and finishing up landscaping in the Eco Trailhead area after spring rains delayed the early June completion date.

“Because it is in the Frenchtown area, we designed it with a French garden theme,” Britton said. “The gazebo itself has a little bit more of a French look to it.”
The benches, made by the parks department staff, sport a fleur-de-lis design, she added.

“It’s not a large park but it’s very visible being on Second Street,” she said. Educational signs will soon enlighten visitors about the entire DuSable Park area and the history of Frenchtown.

Initially the city wanted to acquire more land around the tract to put in a nature center, Britton said. “Obviously there are a lot of viable businesses in there and it’s not in our best interest to buy out viable businesses,” she said.

Still, Britton said, the city is pleased with the way the tract has turned out.

“We’re excited to finally put a finishing touch on the Trailhead which then will complete the master plan for the Eco Park,” she said. “We’re also excited about the fact that because it’s in Frenchtown, we’ve been able to give it a French feel so that we help this part of our city in their development as they move forward.”

The work isn’t stopping from its annual return tomorrow night.
The Historic Frenchtown Association offers the free movies on the fourth Friday of the summer months, Maureen Rogers-Bouxsein, the association’s president, said. Tomorrow’s movie, The Karate Kid, begins at 8:30 p.m. in the Eco Trailhead area where moviegoers can set up lawn chairs or spread blankets.

With work continuing in the Trailhead area it wasn’t clear whether the movies could be shown there or would be moved to a nearby street. But Phillips said arrangements have been made to allow the show to go on.

“We’re kind of accommodating them,” Phillips said. “They’re going to show their movie and the work’s just going to keep on going.”

Organizers are hoping there’s no confusion over whether the show would go on with the on-going work in the park.

“We have our signs out so we’re hoping for a good turn-out,” Rogers-Bouxsein said adding that the movies usually attract about 100 people.

She said her organization is “very excited” about the changes at the Eco Park Trailhead. “We now have a gazebo so you can picnic,” she said. “What was just a green space will now be an interactive park.”

The Association began showing free movies during the summer seven years ago “to give something to the neighborhood and just get people out and get them together,” Rogers-Bouxsein said.

The historic Frenchtown area encompasses about 20 square blocks and is on the National Historic Registry because of its historically significant buildings, she said.

The area has the largest concentration of French colonial style homes outside of Saint Genevieve as well as a large number of German style cottages and Gothic and Victorian homes. Future Friday Night Flicks dates are July 22, Rango and Aug. 26, Tangled.

And, if you’re in a shopping mood, come back to the area on Saturday when Historic Frenchtown Association holds a neighborhood garage sale. Rogers-Bouxsein says 21 partners are participating including some of the antique shops on Second Street.

An earlier version of this article incorrectly described the location of one section of Eco Park. It's located from the boat ramp along the riverfront on the east side of the levee.