On Wednesday, August 11 Tenney Park was the site of an evening of music and memories in celebration of the 100^th birthday of Tenney Park. An appreciative audience enjoyed a wonderful concert by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra in a picture-perfect setting.

The event was sponsored by the Urban Open Space Foundation which earlier this summer spearheaded a restoration effort in Tenney Park which brought out over 150 volunteers who planted hundreds of trees and shrubs.

The celebration was to honor the vision and determination of a handful of citizens who forever changed the landscape and environmental character of the City of Madison. The Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association and its president John Olin raised the private-sector funds to set aside Tenney Park, the first park in Madison designed for a working class population.

Tenney Park has enriched the lives of many generations of Madisonians. The park’s original design objectives, its natural values, cultural legacy and recreational and social opportunities are essential to Madison’s identity as a vibrant, livable city.

Today Tenney Park and the Yahara River Parkway are special places people return to again and again — to fish, ice skate, or just reflect on the water’s continuity and change. The park and parkway are living civic landscapes reflecting nature’s important role in cities in the past, the present and the future.

We congratulate the Urban Open Space Foundation and all of the sponsors who made the evening a memorable event.