Best of Tucson 1996: Best Small Park/Plaza

Best Small Park/Plaza

Himmel Park
1000 N. Tucson Blvd.

READERS' PICK: Let us not mince words: Himmel Park is perfection. It has everything you could want in a park--baseball diamonds, soccer fields, an historic swimming pool (which drives KTUC owner Tom Hassey apoplectic with rage), tennis courts, a charming branch of the public library, an actual train from Tucson's past, walkways, shade, volleyball areas, restrooms used by the police for entrapment, playground equipment in excellent shape...the list goes on and on. What really sets Himmel apart, however, is The Hill. The Hill is unique; there's nothing comparable to it in all of the Old Pueblo. Close your eyes and you can almost imagine you're W.S. Yeats writing the first draft of The Celtic Twilight on a grassy hillock in Ireland. (Sort of. If you close your eyes really tight. And maybe take off your glasses. And ignore the traffic sounds on Speedway.)

READERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: Tucked off in a little corner below the Santa Catalinas off Tanque Verde Road, Agua Caliente County Park, 12325 E. Roger Road, is an unexpected desert oasis. Built on the site of an old ciénaga and ranch, the 111-acre park sports three small lakes, tall palm trees, lush waterside vegetation, and plenty of picnic tables and outdoor grills for weekend refugees. Best of all, no one ever seems to go there, which makes Agua Caliente a fine place for meditating with the ever-inquisitive ducks and getting away from the big city simmering just across the street.

STAFF PICK: Yes, parks offer urban spaces in which to contemplate nature, but a really good park offers an urban space in which to contemplate art, birth, death, decay and resurrection as well. The Garden of Gethsemane, located at the northwest corner of the Santa Cruz riverbed and Congress Street, is a small, gated plaza built in 1982 to house the astounding folk art of Felix Lucero, who in 1945 sculpted a series of larger-than-life scenes depicting the life of Christ. The chunky figures, made from some hard, smooth stuff and painted bright white, desplay the salient moments of the Savior's biography: infancy, the last supper, the crucifixion, resurrection. These beacons of Western culture crowd beneath high-tension power lines, surrounded by votive candles, bums and empty beer cans in what is surely a parable of faith in our time. Come, sip, ponder.