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Dunedin To Choose Name For Downtown Park

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By Mark  Schantz | The Suncoast News

Published: July 21, 2008

DUNEDIN -- Naming the city's newest downtown park won't be easy for Dunedin city commissioners at Thursday night's meeting.

Commissioners will discuss more than 11 suggestions for naming the park, at the corner of Alt. 19 and Main Street, which will house the city's Purple Heart Monument.

The property, previously owned by SunTrust Bank, was purchased by Joseph Kokolakis and wife Anna. The couple subsequently donated the park to the city to be preserved as green space.

Kokolakis owns the row of five Main Street shops adjacent to the park.
Suggestions for the park name include:

• Ladies of the Oaks Park, after the women who tried to save oak trees that adorned Main Street in the early 1900s.

• Oak Tree Park or Oak Tree Memorial Park, noting the property was once lined with oak trees;
• Purple Heart Park, after the monument;

• Garden of Edin, Memorial Garden of Edin, or Oak Garden of Edin, a derivation of the city's name;
• Heroes Park or Valor Park, after Purple Heart veterans.

Other suggestions range from naming the park after former property owners or a significant figure in city history.

For example Vinnie Luisi, Dunedin Historical Society Museum curator and director, said the corner served as the home and post office to the city's first female postmaster, Edna Trask Hope.

The city's Recreation and Parks Advisory Committee suggested the name Purple Heart Park.

Commissioners will discuss the possibilities and give their own suggestions 6:30 p.m. at their regular Thursday night meeting, July 24 at City Hall.

Mark Schantz can be reached at 727-815-1075 or mschantz@suncoastnews.com.

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