LINCOLN PARK — A week after it was celebrated by the community, Fire Station Park is being celebrated by gardening experts.
The park, located behind the Chicago Fire Department station at Armitage Avenue and Larrabee Street, will receive a Chicago Excellence in Gardening Award Sunday in a ceremony set for the Cultural Center Downtown at 78 E. Washington Blvd.
"I am so happy that we are continuing to be a unique and special place in this big city," said Sally Drucker, the Lincoln Central Association's point person on the park it basically adopted seven years ago.
Lincoln Central cheered Thursday's announcement on Facebook.
The awards are sponsored by the University of Illinois Extension, Shedd Aquarium, Chicago Community Gardeners Association, Natural Awakenings Chicago and "The Mike Nowak Show" on WCGO 1590-AM. The ceremony is set for 2 p.m. in the Claudia Cassidy Theater.
The park was celebrated just last weekend with its annual Evening in the Garden, basically marking the end of the growing season.
According to Drucker, it was more of an ornamental garden that had gone to seed when then-Ald. Vi Daley (43rd) urged Lincoln Central to take over tending it in 2010. Beginning the next year, the association has overseen the installation of a small natural prairie and a woodline in the front corners of the park, with vegetable and herb gardens in the center and a small concrete gathering place with a rotating annual sculpture in the back.
The herbs and vegetables serve local residents, as well as cooks at the adjacent firehouse.
