There’s been plenty of talk lately about Parker Harding Plaza.
Should we add more green space next to the Saugatuck River? Or is keeping parking paramount?
Access to the river was an afterthought in the 1950s, when town official Emerson Parker and landscape architect Evan Harding devised a plan to use landfill to create a couple of hundred spots for shoppers, behind Main Street.
Up to then, the river lapped up against the backs of stores on the west side.
(Their sewage was dumped directly into the water — but that’s a different story.)
But Parker and Harding did provide access to the Saugatuck.
(Photo courtesy of Christopher Maroc)
Today, those steps are overgrown. The view below is from Parker Harding; the pedestrian bridge (left in the photo above) is closed.
(Photo/Dan Woog)
Reclaim the steps! Open the river! Access for all!
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I’m curious about the wooden bridge on left hand side of first photo?
That wooden walkway was open until recently. Dan, do you know why it was closed or what it needs to re-open? Thanks!
I do not.
The wooden walkway hasn’t been open for years now as a hazard the picnic benches have been falling apart for years and the maintenance Is atrocious.
There used to be a paddle boat rental on the bottom of those steps, right?
Not that I know of!
No way those steps will be approved for use in our currently
litigious era. It’s surprising that thy ever were in use.
Westport does not utilize their precious waterways well at all. Is Westport still lacking a harbor management plan? I have offered many times to help write one, since I have visited dozens of harbors in the north east, and ready many harbor management plans. Add a break wall out by compo / ned dimes / cedar point, protect the entire mooring field from east winds, add more moorings, dredge, add docks downtown, build a wooden pier along the water too for pedestrians. maybe a launch service will operate from the mooring field to downtown otherwise people can take their smaller boats or dinghies. business would increase with visiting boaters who would visit stores downtown, dine, etc. its a hidden treasure waiting to be utilized.