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Exploring Corinne Jones Park

Posted: Jul 08, 2020 03:32 pm Updated: Oct 17, 2023 09:09 am

Located at 620 E. Government Street, Corinne Jones Park is named in honor of one of Pensacola’s most tireless activists, educators and community volunteers, Corinne Harvey Jackson Jones. 

Jones was born September 1, 1897 in Pensacola, FL. She was named for, given to and raised by her Godmother Mrs. Corinne Harvey, who had no children of her own. Mrs. Jones began her significant civic contributions in the 1930s by using her home to house the Works Progress Administration’s Pensacola headquarters, where she helped train hundreds of men and women for jobs.

When WWII broke out, Mrs. Jones went to work as an aircraft mechanic at Pensacola’s Naval Air Station. During that time, she founded the first black Girl Scout troop in Pensacola. After the war, she was offered the job as Director of Fricker Community Center, where she worked from 1945 until 1962, when she retired. Throughout her life, Mrs. Jones was active in youth and adult organizations including the YWCA, Fiesta of Five Flags, the Green Thumbs Garden Club and the American Cancer Society.

In 1965, the Recreation Board voted to name the community center known as the West Side Building after Mrs. Jones. In 2004, Hurricane Ivan destroyed that facility, along with Sanders Beach Community Center. The funds from insurance and other sources were combined to rebuild the facility at Sanders Beach and it was determined that that facility would share the name of Mrs. Jones.

More than just a place to play, the park offers visitors the opportunity to enjoy a leisurely walk around the Government Street Regional Stormwater Pond, which is designed to capture and treat runoff from approximately 40 acres in downtown Pensacola that previously discharged untreated stormwater directly into Pensacola Bay. The Stormwater Pond at Corinne Jones Park was completed in late 2017 as part of a larger package of stormwater infrastucture projects around the city.

[SOURCE: City of Pensacola]