Matthias Baldwin Park

By 1974 construction began but due to economic uncertainty in the 1970’s the project progressed in fits and starts, and still, 50 years later, is not completed.

Landscape artist Athena Tacha was commissioned to design the park, and the final version was the art piece titled Connections, which is made up of a terraced set of planting beds surrounded by a level surface with paved pathways and fifty trees.

For the same reason, the name of the neighborhood on the community bulletin board Nextdoor was changed from Franklin Town to Baldwin Park in 2019.

A State of Pennsylvania historical marker was placed at the northwest corner of the park in 2009 commemorating the location of the Baldwin Locomotive Works.

Members of the Friends group were sought out for comments and educated a national audience on the fact that Baldwin was in fact an abolitionist, a defender of Black franchise, a donor for schools for Blacks, and a workforce integrator, all of which caused him to lose business in Southern states in the decades preceding the Civil War.