Doyle Community Park

Doyle Community Park is an urban park on the eastern edge of downtown Santa Rosa, California. The western end of the park is the confluence of Matanzas Creek and Spring Creek. Spring Creek forms the northern park boundary and Matanzas Creek forms the southern park boundary. The eastern end of the park is a fenced and lighted baseball field formerly used by the minor league Santa Rosa Pirates.[2] The remainder of the park includes the Doyle Park Clubhouse, restrooms, playground slides and swings, horseshoe pits, separate fenced areas for unleashed large and small dogs,[3] and picnic tables with barbecue grills including five sites available for reservation.[4]

For the park in Leominster, Massachusetts, see Doyle Community Park & Center.
Doyle Community Park
The main entrance to Doyle Park is this bridge over Spring Creek built by the Work Projects Administration at the southern end of Doyle Park Drive.[1]
Typeurban park
LocationSanta Rosa, California
Coordinates38°26′24″N 122°41′49″W
Area21.76 acres (8.81 ha)
Operated byCity of Santa Rosa
This single Umbellularia lignotuber adjacent to Matanzas Creek supports multiple mature sprouts.

A paved trail follows the shaded riparian woodland of mature oaks, maples, and California bay laurel trees along Spring Creek and Matanzas Creek from the Doyle Park Clubhouse on Hoen Avenue to the footbridge over Matanzas Creek across Vallejo Street from Brook Hill School. Prior to European settlement, what is now Doyle Park was part of a larger riparian wetland within which these creeks changed course when dead trees fell into their channels and accumulated coarse woody debris diverted flood runoff out of those channels to form new channels. Europeans deepened the present creek channels about 4 m (13 ft) through Quaternary alluvium of the Santa Rosa Plain to minimize urban flooding.[5] The park and paved trail is at the level of the original wetland, but there are a few access points into the lower channels which now confine the creeks.[6]

Western gray squirrels are plentiful in the park, and a murder of crows often gather nearby. Birdwatchers have observed sparrows, finches, towhees, jays, woodpeckers, robins, bluebirds, mockingbirds, chickadees, phoebes, kinglets, warblers, nuthatch, and titmouse.[6]

Frank Pierce Doyle

Frank Doyle (1863-1948) and his father Manville Doyle formed the Exchange Bank of Santa Rosa in 1890. Frank purchased the land for Doyle Community Park as a memorial for his 13-year-old son who died during tonsillectomy surgery in 1921.[7] Frank encouraged improvement of local transportation, including building the Golden Gate Bridge. While touring the bridge construction site two months before the opening, Frank rode in the first private automobile across the bridge, and was designated "Father of the Golden Gate." When Frank died, 50.4% of the Exchange Bank common stock was put into a perpetual trust as the Frank P. Doyle and Polly O’Meara Doyle Scholarship Fund. Since 1948, this scholarship fund has provided over $90 million to more than 135,000 Sonoma County students attending Santa Rosa Junior College.[8] The fund also provides $2,000 annually for maintenance of Doyle Community Park.[9]

References
  1. "Doyle Park Bridge – Santa Rosa CA". The Living New Deal. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  2. Schurr, Mark. "What Happened to Doyle Park?". Youth Sports Network. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  3. "Doyle Community Dog Park". Wag!. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  4. "Doyle Community Park". City of Santa Rosa. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  5. Koenig, James B. Geologic Map of California:Santa Rosa Sheet (1976) State of California Resources Agency
  6. Talcroft, Colin. "Doyle Park, Santa Rosa, 95405". Sonoma County Bird Watching Spots. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  7. Wilson, Simone (2004). Santa Rosa. Arcadia Publishing. p. 20. ISBN 9780738528854.
  8. "Legacy". Exchange Bank. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  9. "The Legacy of Frank P. Doyle". Santa Rosa Junior College. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
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