‘Save our park!’

By Elizabeth Stieber
Times Staff Writer

Members of Robert Waln Ryerss’ family have joined the fight waged by some residents to keep Burholme Park just the way it is.
Gerald Waln, a distant relative of Ryerss, whose family owned the parkland until the early 1900s, met with three dozen residents last Saturday at Ryerss Museum & Library to pledge his family’s support as the group protested the Fox Chase Cancer Center’s plans to expand into the park.
"This is a very special spot for me and for my family," said Waln, who traveled from central Pennsylvania to meet with the group.
Burholme Park, he explained, was named after the Waln family’s ancestral farm home in England.
The family came to this country in 1682 and settled in Bucks County, Waln told the crowd.
Upon his death in 1896, Ryerss had stipulated in his will that the mansion and about 60 acres be left to his wife, who, upon her death, would bequeath it to the city for use as a park, library and museum, without charge to the public.
Burholme Park opened for public use in 1910, under supervision of the Fairmount Park Commission.
A few years ago, the Waln family traveled from locations across the country to hold a family reunion at the mansion, Gerald Waln said.
"As I have talked with family members all across the country, especially those who were here during the family reunion," said Waln, "they were all very upset to hear about what’s happening, and they’re pledging their support that we can do everything possible to make sure that (Burholme) remains as a park, as in the wishes of Robert Waln Ryerss."
The cancer center, at 333 Cottman Ave., is eager to undertake a $1 billion expansion, but a key part of the proposal — an interest in acquiring a neighboring 25-acre section of the 60-acre park through a deal with the Fairmount Park Commission — has distressed some Burholme residents who want to preserve the site.
The cancer center wants to expand its clinical and research components, thereby adding about 4,000 jobs.
In exchange, the center would fund restoration and maintenance of the entire park, including the playground equipment and ballfields.
Members of the park’s surrounding communities formed the Burholme Park Community Coalition a few months ago to fight the center’s plans.
The coalition has contacted members of the Ryerss family for support.
The plan, the community coalition argues, would break the will of Robert Waln Ryerss, who owned the land and lived in the mansion over a century ago.
Ryerss stipulated that his land would be conveyed to the Fairmount Park Commission as a public park.
The community coalition has hired attorney Samuel C. Stretton to fight the Fox Chase Cancer Center’s proposal and uphold the provisions of Robert Waln Ryerss’ will.
"We call upon the Fairmount Park Commission to vote against the current proposal to use twenty-five acres of this beautiful, open, local park for development," said coalition chairwoman Nancy Ostroff.
The commission is meeting at 2 p.m. on Feb. 16 at its Horticultural Center, located at the southeast corner of Belmont and Montgomery drives, to discuss the plans for the park.
Ostroff said she wants the Fairmount Park Commission to uphold its mission statement to "preserve and protect the park open spaces to provide opportunities for recreation, to maintain the landscape, the structures, streams and woodlands that exist within the boundaries, and to enable Philadelphia to be a better place to live and work."
The coalition will hold a legal defense fund-raiser on March 12 at the Immanuel Lutheran Church, 1015 Cottman Ave.
Tickets are $25, and checks can be made to the BPCC Legal Defense Fund and mailed to P.O. Box 5040, Philadelphia, PA 19111.
"We want (Gerald Waln) to know that we will sue to preserve and protect that gift, which his relative gave us one-hundred years ago," Ostroff told the crowd.
"This is one of the most beautiful parks, if not the most beautiful park, in Northeast Philadelphia. It is the heart of Burholme, Fox Chase, Rockledge and the corners of Abington and Cheltenham townships." ••
Reporter Elizabeth Stieber can be reached at 215-354-3036 or estieber@phillynews.com