Overview
The Friends of Keney Park, Inc., in Partnership with the City of Hartford, Keney Park Sustainability Project, State of Ct DEEP’s Environmental Justice Program, Leadership Greater Hartford, Blue Hills Civic Association, Northeast NRZ, Upper Albany NRZ, Blue Hills Civic Association, Hartford Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission, CT State Museum of Natural History, Hartford Communities that Care, Family Day Enterprises Inc., PGA Connecticut, Blue Hills NRZ, Community Solutions, UCONN, Goodwin College, West Indian Cricket Task force, Ebony Horsewomen, Upper Albany Avenue Collaborative, Hartford Public Library, Voice of Women of Color ,Garden Club of Greater, and Waverley Little League, Hartford will develop an operation and maintenance plan in the City of Hartford for Keney Park.
The Friends of Keney Park is governed by a board which is elected at the annual membership meeting. All members of the organization are allowed to vote in the election. Board meetings are open to the public. The organization’s officers consist of President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary to carry out day-to-day business.
The FOKP has worked with federal, state and local officials to help obtain over four million dollars in grants for the physical improvement of Keney Park. The organization has also worked with city officials and private groups to bring various activities into the Park.
Our goal is to develop, maintain and enhance one of the nation’s oldest Parks as an (Urban Nature Center) in the City of Hartford. It will also provide students and residents within urban communities with a safe and nurturing learning environment that will help achieve their full potential in the environmental education field.
Keney Park, composing 693 acres, is one of the largest designed landscapes in the United States. An initial gift of 533 acres by investor and wholesale grocer, Henry Keney to the City of Hartford in 1894, it expanded the City’s then emerging park system. Keney Park was designed by the landscape architectural firm of Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot. It was deemed ready and presentable for transfer to the City, as directed in Keney’s will, on August 18, 1924. Keney Park was intentionally designed to be a “truly sylvan pastions of Hartford families and visitors.