WHITEHALL — The White Lake Area Historical Society examined the history of Svensson Park during its meeting last Thursday - a history with deep local roots.
The park is located on a small piece of land on Lake Street in Whitehall, which was donated to the city by Nora Svensson in 1951. Nora and husband Charles were given a small villa in the area as a gift for their 1915 wedding, and owned and operated it as a resort property for about 50 years, said Jan Grady, a Svensson granddaughter. The original plan, per a Whitehall Forum article of the time, was for the land to be developed as a city park. It would have included playground equipment, parking, a bathroom and a picnic area, along with public beach access. (Public beach access was later found to be impossible to arrange due to an ever-changing shoreline preventing it.)
Funding problems led to those plans not being realized for many years. In 1969, the Svenssons unsuccessfully attempted to get the city to return the land - Charles' oldest son, also named Charles, instead developed nearby land into Windy Cove campground, and it is now the site of Windy Cove condominiums. In 1976, the family had a reunion of sorts on the land, dedicating a new sign erected by Svensson and Jerry Grady, Jan's husband. Nora wrote a letter to the White Lake Observer shortly thereafter asking, "Will it take another 25 years?"
The city finally obtained a grant in the early 1990s that enabled some development to be done on the site, but the onset of invasive species some years later harmed the grounds. It took time to address the issue, even after the Muskegon Conservation District selected the area for rehabilitation. With things not going the way the Svenssons hoped, in 2015, Grady said, the family approached the city.
"We didn't go to the city hall with pitchforks and torches," Grady said, but the family hoped to obtain some help combating the invasive species issue. The push was successful, and the city allocated funds, assigning the Department of Public Works to rehabilitate the land. Today, the park has playground equipment, a small picnic area, and a pergola that provides shade, along with a pleasant view of the lake - hitting most of the items the Svenssons originally aimed to provide by donating the land. The park is no longer overrun with invasive plant species.
In the future, Grady said, the family would like to see more oversight of the park by the Muskegon Conservation District, which has hosted occasional stewardship days at the park. There are some wildflowers in the park, though Grady would love to see more.
"This park is intended to be enjoyed by visitors, and we hope it will always be so," Grady said.
