The Restoration and Beautification Committee of Columbiana is excited to refer to 2020 as the “year of the park” as heavy equipment moves in and crews work daily on the continuing restoration of Firestone Park.

Concrete is being poured, sidewalks are being paved, over 1,000 new lush plantings, trees and bushes have arrived for landscaping throughout the park, entrances and pavilions are being upgraded, and the walls have come tumbling down at the sports courts! 

All part of the ongoing 3-million-dollar-plus capital renovation project of a park gifted to the city decades ago by native son, Harvey S. Firestone, and now being refreshed, improved and brought into the 21st century while honoring the significance of its rich past. The former sports courts have now been completely razed to make way for new tennis courts, pickleball courts and basketball court to be completed in an estimated six weeks.

The “Legacy Trail,” a pathway of historical locations within the park is well underway to highlight “Harvey’s Lookout,” the pioneer “Hanna Homestead Spring Garden” the “Great Tree Lawn” and a beautiful “Lilac Stroll Garden.”  

In 2019, Mirror Lake was transformed, three stone pillars were erected at the north end of the lake as a homage to Firestone and his two close friends, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, and the beautiful David Tingle Memorial Garden was constructed nearby. We continue to honor the past and to tell the story of our park as 2020 continues! (Signs are up noting the construction companies and participants currently at work in the park.) restorecolumbiana.com.