While other families were grilling in the park for Memorial Day, Anita Jackson-Lowe was looking for ways to clean up her park.

Jackson-Lowe is president of the Fairview Park Association, a nonprofit that owns the historic Salem property that was once home to the state’s first and only Black-owned amusement park.

“We totally lost one of our shelters,” Jackson-Lowe said of the April 29 storm that damaged buildings, downed trees and cut the power for thousands of residents. “The storm literally pulled some of the poles out of the concrete. It was completely destroyed along with a couple picnic tables under it.”

Roofing came off one of the park’s other shelters, and some of the park’s older trees were sheared or lost large branches.

For Jackson-Lowe and the association’s board, the timing couldn’t have been worse — they were in the midst of gearing up to mark the park’s 80th anniversary at their annual Old Fashioned Picnic in August.

“We’re going to have to reach deep into the budget to make the repairs, and there are trees that will have to come down before we can put new shelters up,” Jackson-Lowe said. “We have a wonderful neighbor who volunteered his time and equipment to help clean things up, but there’s still some work that needs to be done.”

The land, off of Old William Penn Highway, was originally purchased in 1945 by the Monongahela Valley Sunday School Association.

A consortium of Black Sunday school superintendents established the park primarily as a safe place for people to congregate and celebrate in a heavily segregated America.

The park has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2011 and in 2017 received a marker from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

“As we work to celebrate the park’s legacy and the 80th anniversary, we’re hoping we can get some donations to help offset the cost of cleaning up the storm damage,” Jackson-Lowe said. “With the picnic, if people are willing to donate to help with things like the DJ, the bounce house, or if people who provide those services are willing to work with us, we’d welcome that.”

This year’s Old Fashioned Picnic is scheduled for noon to 5 p.m. Aug. 16 at the park, which spans 55 acres between Old William Penn Highway and Route 22 in Salem.

Donations by check can be made payable to Fairview Park, mailed to P.O. Box 5114, Pittsburgh, PA 15206. PayPal donations can also be made at Paypal.me/historicfairviewpark.

For more information, go to HistoricFairviewPark.com.

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