New Bellaire park dedicates 5-acres of green space to inner loop

BELLAIRE, Texas (KTRK) -- It's rare that a green space ever gets as much attention as the long-awaited Evelyn's Park is receiving ahead of its Earth Day opening on Saturday.

Yet, with five acres of land complete with gardens, a playground, art installations and a new cafe all set right inside the Loop, it's safe to say Bellaire will be buzzing about its new park for quite a while.

"I'm so excited my head is about to explode!" said Denton Ragland, executive director of Evelyn's Park Conservancy as he gave ABC13 a preview of the park.

"What we know is that if you come and spend time in an outdoor setting, that has a chemical effect on your body in a very positive way," Ragland said walking down the paved path between ferns, plum trees and tall grasses.

If you've ever driven by the new park site, you would probably recognize the property and its yellow house.

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Teas Nursery operated on the land from 1910 to 2009 as the first business in Bellaire.

The Teas family got the iconic yellow paint for free, when the company for the nearby railroad offered it up after having ordered too much paint.

The park is both publicly and privately funded and will be maintained by the conservancy and a local family, the Rubenstein's.

When Teas Nursery closed, brothers Jerry and Maury bought the land and gifted it to the city of Bellaire in honor of their mother, Evelyn, a lover of the outdoors.

"This could have been a parking lot, this could've been just another building, and yet what's been created is a green space where we'll always be able to come here for generations," said Ragland.

Proof that sometimes it takes the past to realize the promise of the future.

"It's a legacy to the future," Ragland added.

The park will play host to farmers markets, family fitness classes and special events both outside and inside Ivy and James, the new cafe from a pair of former Heights restaurateurs.

Evelyn's Park officially opens on Earth Day, Saturday, April 22 at 4400 Bellaire Blvd.

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