Project latest in Paxton Trust beautification legacy
A dedication will be held for Storm Lake’s new Chautauqua Park playground, August 14, 2024 at 10 a.m. Everyone is welcome to attend. Refreshments will be provided.
The City of Storm Lake would like to recognize the pivotal role the Paxton Family Trust played in making the playground possible. Grants from the trust have created several beautification projects in the community over the years, including the Sleepy Hollow statues, the observation deck on the Awaysis Park lighthouse, the flags plaza in Awaysis Park, the Circle Park Rain Garden, and a current project with Witter Gallery to install several bronze statues at various sites around the community.
In 2023, the Paxton Trust offered a $150,000 grant toward a new playground, to replace an approximately 25-year-old playground set. The metal mesh base of the old playground was beginning to break down from age, and replacement parts were no longer available.
“The trust’s mission is beautification of the land around the lakes and parks area. We knew a playground was a big need and a good opportunity,” trust representative Julie Mooney explains. “We all recognize that our kids and families love being in the park. The playground will bring kids joy, will attract people to the park, and will be a long-lasting addition.”
Trust representatives began to explore options for a new playground. “We looked at many, many different configurations. We wanted to bring the kinds of things kids will want to play on, things that would be geared to children of all ages, with elements that would be challenging for kids that are a bit older too. At the same time, it was important to increase disability accessibility,” Mooney says.
City officials welcomed the trust donation, and with some maneuvering of funds to stay within the fiscal year budget, added additional funding to bring the development to an estimated $235,000 investment.
Mayor Mike Porsch expressed gratitude for the latest Paxton Trust gift. “Your support helps to make Storm Lake the community we want it to be," he said. The focus of the project is on safety, quality, and an interactive experience for children of all ages who will use the playground, he said.
The playground unit features slides, climbers, and ground-level activities, with a safety surface and undersea theming.
The design chosen was by Crouch Recreation, a family operation led by Eric Crouch, winner of the 2001 Heisman Trophy in his days as quarterback of the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
The Storm Lake Parks Department hopes to further develop the area with a swing ride that will be accessible to families of children with mobility issues. A future sidewalk to access the area will further assist with accessibility.
ABOUT THE PAXTON TRUST
The Paxton Trust is a legacy of three Paxton sisters – Margaret, Margery and Maxine - who grew up playing in the park and along the shore of the area in the early years of the past century.
The Paxton family arrived in Storm Lake in 1910. Margaret, the eldest, was 3, Maxine, the youngest, just six weeks old. Father James Bradley Paxton rented space in a downtown drug store for a watch repair booth, the beginnings of the long-standing Paxton Jewelry business in the city.
Mother Alice loved to fish from the shore. A newspaper clipping from the 1950s told of her catching 473 fish in one summer. The family adored Storm Lake and was captivated by its beauty throughout their lives.
The adventurous trio of girls took to the fairly undeveloped lakefront naturally and spent happy summers laughing and playing. As adults, two worked in the Paxton store, the third at the courthouse a stone's throw away. After her father's death, Margery operated Paxton's Jewelry for another decade into the 1940s. She was one of the first women in the U.S. to be awarded the title of "Registered Jeweler."
In their later years, Margery and Maxine resided in a condo across the street from Sleepy Hollow, still enjoying the lovely spot they had known in childhood. They especially loved watching children play happily in the park.
While the three little girls depicted in the statues the trust has erected at Sleepy Hollow are not intended to portray the specific Paxton girls, the spirit is probably much the same. Their clothing is of the pre-World War I era in which the girls frolicked. Each statue has a name - Springtime holds her hat filled with daisies. Twirl touches the hem of her sundress as if caught in mid-dance, while studious Sprite perches upon a rock, reading her book.
The Paxtons wanted to leave their community more than memories. After the last of the sisters passed away in 1997, the previously-planned trust was brought to fruition. The trust is perpetual, hosted by Citizens First National Bank and operated by an independent governing committee, with trust income used for the community improvement grants.