NoMa has another new park on the way. The NoMa Parks Foundation announced Wednesday that it has acquired a vacant lot that will be turned into an 8,400 square-foot public park.
Located at the corner of Third and L Streets NE, the park is the sister property to the adjacent Swampoodle Park, the neighborhood’s first public park, which opened in 2018 and features a dog park and children’s playground. Swampoodle was part of a slew of new public parks and spaces in NoMa.
“I’ve been saying it’s two plus two equals seven,” Robin-Eve Jasper, president of the non-profit NoMa Parks Foundation, says. “Having those two parks adjacent to one another really is much more significant than having two small parks scattered.”
The new property’s working name is Swampoodle II.
Jasper says it’s important that the design “communicate effectively” across both parks, but that the uses of the park will dictate the look and feel. Swampoodle II may feature more space for activities like picnics and even more greenery and plants, per Jasper, but plans will be based on resident input during a community engagement process.
The NoMa Parks Foundation, which is an affiliate of the NoMa Business Improvement District, bought the land for $3.4 million. The purchase marks its fourth land acquisition since the D.C. Council committed $50 million in public-private partnership to develop green space in the area, which was previously lacking in parks.
The name of the park was chosen in a public vote. Irish immigrants dubbed the area “Swampoodle” in the 1800s, a combination of the words “swamp” and “puddle,” as the Tiber Creek kept the soil in the area wet.
The group has opened a number of other public spaces in recent years, including “Rain,” an art installation at the M Street NE underpass, and Alethia Tanner Park, which opened in June and honors a formerly enslaved woman who helped open D.C.’s first school for Black children.
Washingtonians have taken to the outdoors in record numbers over the past few months as the coronavirus shut daily life in the District down, and they sought a safe place to escape and convene with others.
Jasper says the foundation hopes to have work on the park completed within two years, adding “fingers crossed that that’s attainable.” Like with Swampoodle, the public will also get a chance to weigh in on the park’s name, which will be presented as a suggestion to the Mayor Muriel Bowser and the council before a formal naming process.
Jasper hopes it will serve the community well beyond the health crisis. “Parks are built for decades, if not centuries,” she says.
