Sep. 1—If the original plans for F.M. Kirby Park were followed, the pond would be in another area and the parking lot would be two baseball fields.
A bridle walking path would had been built next to a horse path that encircled the entire park along with an amphitheater adjacent to the Susquehanna River.
Of course, the original plans designed by the landscape architectural firm, Olmsted Brothers, of Massachusetts, would change. The founder of Olmsted Brothers, Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., designed Central Park in New York City in 1857.
To celebrate Kirby Park’s centennial celebration, a large party is being held Saturday, Sept. 7 from 12-9 p.m. Hot air balloons, children’s rides, a petting zoo, live music and food vendors will be offered with performances by the NEPA Philharmonic ending the night with fireworks.
As early as 1903, well-known landscape designer Warren Manning had urged Wilkes-Barre to acquire the often-flooded farmland on the West Side and transform the area into a park.
Efforts were delayed until 1920 when Wilkes-Barre put in the effort to create a park by a resolution by city council.
The park almost had another name.
“City Commissioner Joseph G. Schuler told council that the park naming committee went to see Mr. F.M. Kirby four times before Mr. Kirby consented to have the park named in his honor,” reported the Evening News on Aug. 23, 1920, when city council officially gave the park its name.
Original plans for F.M. Kirby Park had rolling meadows with walking and horse paths boarded by trees. A road for automobiles was drawn to access the amphitheater that was to be built next to the river with another entrance from the Wilkes-Barre Connecting Railroad Bridge (mistakenly called the Black Diamond Bridge.)
“Children’s playgrounds and the athletic section of Kirby Park will be rolling ground that will afford an engaging vista and will be ready for use as a golf course,” the Wilkes-Barre Record reported Feb. 17, 1922.
As the park took shape, baseball and football games were played, equestrian events, pageants and outings were held in the months before Kirby Park was officially dedicated June 4, 1924, called the “greatest one-day celebration” in the history of the Wyoming Valley.
“Wilkes-Barre and Wyoming Valley today paid tribute to Fred Morgan Kirby, businessman, philanthropist and donor of Kirby Park. Thousands turned out to pay respect to their fellow citizen and to witness a most elaborate program given a the park in his honor,” reported the Times Leader evening edition June 4, 1924.
The June 4, 1924, ceremony began at 9:45 o’clock in the morning when several Boy Scouts raised a large American flag on a 70-foot high pole followed by the 109th Field Artillery salute of 21 guns.
F.M. Kirby, at 15, began work as a store clerk in Watertown, N.Y., earning $2 per week. Having saved $500, he formed a partnership with C. Sumner Woolworth of Scranton, and opened the firm Woolworth & Kirby, a five-and-10 cent store on East Market Street, Wilkes-Barre, in 1884. Kirby would become one of the valley’s most influential businessman, having stakes in Miners Savings Bank, Lehigh Valley Railroad, insurance brokerage firms and lumber companies.
Kirby died Oct. 16, 1940, at his Greystones estate in Mountain Top.
“When city council condemned 120.97 acres of land on the west bank of the Susquehanna River and south of Market Street in 1920, Mr. Kirby offered a gift of $250,000 for the development of the territory,” a part of Kirby’s obituary says.
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