Detroit’s Palmer Park has seen many improvements over the years, from renovated tennis and pickleball courts and a new dog park to a variety of habitat restoration projects.

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Home to the largest old-growth forest in the Tri-County area — and one of only seven forests in the city of Detroit — the protection of the park’s 70-acre Witherell Woods has been a key focus for community groups working to restore and maintain the park.

People for Palmer Park President Stacy Varner, and Bobbi Westerby — whose company Environmental Consulting & Technology is leading the park’s latest restoration efforts — joined The Metro on Thursday to discuss their goals and the importance of this public space.

Varner described the scenery in Palmer Park as “magical,” noting that there is work underway to make improvements to both the park’s trail system and natural areas. 

“Just like with any living thing, [the park] needs maintenance, it needs nurturing, it needs preserving,” Varner said. “That’s part of this effort, of the habitat restoration project that is going on in Palmer Park.”

Westerby says part of their restoration work will include removal of invasive species, like buckthorn, from Witherell Woods to help promote native growth.

“We don’t want to do a lot,” said Westerby of the forest restoration efforts. “We want to remove the stuff that’s not supposed to be there and let the things that are supposed to be there thrive.”

Use the media player above to hear the full interview with Varner and Westerby.

WDET’s Jenny Sherman contributed to this report.

Related: CuriosiD: Are the woods in Palmer Park a virgin forest?

More headlines from The Metro on Sept. 12, 2024:

• The city of Detroit and its fire department want to train all city employees in hands-only CPR. It’s already trained 100,000 residents on CPR and AED use – giving the city a “HeartSafe city” designation by a national preparedness program dedicated to improving outcomes from sudden cardiac arrest. To discuss their efforts and the importance of CPR/AED training, Detroit Fire Department Commissioner Chuck Simms and Medical Director Dr. Robert Dunne joined the show.
• Two University of Michigan professors have teamed up for an initiative aimed at increasing college-age voting called the Creative Campus Voting Project. They joined The Metro to discuss their efforts. 
• The Detroit Documenters recently attended a hearing by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy about possible changes to a permit for the Detroit Assembly Complex on Mack Avenue run by Stellantis. Residents are asking for the permit to be denied. To discuss what happened at the hearing, we were joined by Detroit Documenter Anna Harris and Coordinator Noah Kincade.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 11 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

WDET’s CuriosiD podcast answers your questions about everything Detroit. Subscribe to CuriosiD on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode of CuriosiD, we answer a question from WDET listener Theresa May:

“There’s a park in Indian Village named after my Uncle Tommy, who passed away in World War II as a very young man. My family has always wondered — why was the park named after him?”

The short answer

Who was Thomas Mollicone?

Thomas Mollicone was 23 years old when he joined the U.S. Army during World War II. He lived with his mother and three sisters in Detroit’s Indian Village neighborhood after their father died. The family had immigrated from Italy to Detroit when Mollicone was a child. 

“He got his draft notice on the day of my parents’ wedding,” Patricia Antonelli, Mollicone’s niece, says. 

Despite being the only wage earner for the household, Mollicone was drafted into military service.

“Uncle Tommy should not have been drafted because he was the sole provider [for] three girls and his mom,” Antonelli said.

Family lore suggests that Mollicone’s mother attempted various methods to keep him out of the war.

“My grandmother apparently paid someone to keep him out of the service,” Theresa May said of her uncle. Antonelli added: “I’m not sure if she paid, but there was a scam.”

Mollicone’s family believes that a politician’s son avoided service because Mollicone went in his place.

“She made lots of chiffon cakes to keep him out. Bribery. But there was a [local] politician whose son did not go, and Tommy went in his place,” May said.

Mollicone earned several honors while serving in the military, including a Silver Star and Purple Heart. However, the exact circumstances of his death remain unclear.

“He was asked to participate in a mission that they kind of knew he wasn’t going to come out of,” said May, recounting a story her mother shared with her. “He went into combat and did what he was asked to do for his country, and he died.”

The evolution of Mollicone Park

Mollicone Park, an open space with mature trees in the historic Indian Village neighborhood, remained largely unused for many years after its dedication.

In 2011, Callie Sullivan — a resident of Indian Village — noticed the lack of local recreational spaces for her children.

“I had one child at the time; I now have four,” Sullivan said. “We were always being creative with the places we would go to play. There wasn’t a nearby park.” Sullivan and her neighbors began canvassing the area, asking, “How could they make the park better?”

Their efforts led to the formation of the Friends of Mollicone Park — a committee of the nonprofit Indian Village Historical Collections — with the goal of revitalizing the underutilized park. Supported by a combination of funding from the city of Detroit, Wayne County and community donations, the group was able to bring their vision to life, and the park was re-dedicated in a ceremony attended by Mollicone’s closest remaining family members in June 2018.

Today, Mollicone Park features a playground, swings, walking paths and picnic tables, providing a much-needed space for the community.

A community hero 

Mollicone was known in his neighborhood for his generosity and reliability. He was often seen helping others by providing transportation to and from work during tough economic times.

“He would make rounds. He was like the local bus of the neighborhood where he would make sure whoever needed to get to their job was going to get to work,” Antonelli said. “He was a really great giving neighbor that everyone really loved, and it was the community that felt the loss of him.”

Other parks named after World War II heroes

Mollicone Park is one of several parks in Detroit named after fallen soldiers from World War II. Other parks include Dueweke Park — named after Sergeant Sylvester L. Dueweke, who died in 1945; and Krainz Park, named after Captain John Krainz — who was killed in action in 1944. Lipke Park, also known as SAY Detroit Play, honors the Lipke Brothers — Nicholas and Clarence — who both died during the war.

While the Mollicone family may not have all the details of Thomas Mollicone’s final moments, they remember him as a hero who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country.

About the listener

Theresa May is a New Baltimore resident and a longtime WDET listener. She says her family has always wondered what precipitated the Indian Village community’s decision to dedicate a local park in Millicone’s honor.

We want to hear from you! 

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City officials and community stakeholders gathered in Rouge Park on Thursday to celebrate the newly revitalized Tireman-Minock Park in Detroit’s Warrendale/Cody Rouge neighborhood.

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Detroit City Councilman for District 7, Fred Durhal, said Thursday that the new park symbolizes something great: “Community ideas,” he said.

“When we go to these community meetings, folks talk about, ‘we need a place to recreate; we need a walking track so we can walk at least a mile; we want to have swing sets; we want to have playscapes for our children so they can stay active; we want a picnic place so we can congregate and even in the summertime hold some of our meetings here,'” Durhal said. “So what you see here today is indicative of that type of thought that you guys put out into the community that we take back to our public-private partnerships and bring all this into fruition.”

The park was funded as part of the city’s Strategic Neighborhood Fund initiative, with additional funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, Huntington Bank and the Gilbert Family Foundation.

The park sits on the former site of Dixon Elementary School on Detroit’s west side. Dr. Patricia Butler, community development manager for the Cody Rouge Community Action Agency, said at the park’s unveiling on Thursday that she has hoped the area would be revitalized ever since the day the school closed. 

“And when I saw the school going down I didn’t get discouraged, because I said when something comes down, something else is going to come up. And out of the ashes came this beautiful park,” said Butler.

The park, located within the bounds of the much larger Rouge Park, features a playground, picnic tables, picnic shelters, walkways, and fitness equipment.  

WDET’s Jenny Sherman contributed to this report.

Other headlines for Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024:

• Detroit Home Accessibility Program applications are now open for Detroit residents who need accessibility modifications made to their homes.
• The Detroit Regional LGBT Chamber of Commerce is conducting a survey to ask about the potential of developing an LGBTQ+ business district in metro Detroit.
• Metro Detroit is offering a mix of summer music events this weekend, including the annual Ribs and R&B festival at Hart Plaza; The Queens of R&B tour coming to Little Caesars Arena on Friday, headlined by groups Xscape and SWV; and The Lathrup Village Music Festival outside the Southfield Municipal Center, featuring Thornetta Davis, Stacey “Hotwaxx” Hale, Paul Hill and more. 

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

A new project is combining sounds and storytelling – rooted in Detroit’s parks and neighborhoods. 

The Joyce Foundation, in collaboration with the Detroit Parks Coalition, gave Detroit saxophonist Marcus Elliot a grant to curate Sounds from the Park. It’s a project meant to use music to tell stories about Detroit’s parks and neighborhoods.  

Elliot — who is also an instructor of jazz saxophone at Wayne State University and the director of the Creative Arts Orchestra at the University of Michigan — joined The Metro on Tuesday to tell us more about his new initiative. We were also joined by Ian Solomon, community engagement manager from the Detroit Parks Coalition.

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Elliot has been tasked with creating musical works that connect to physical spaces in the city. The goal is to have music composed with intentionality about the park, and then allow people to experience the music from within the park.   

Solomon says arts and culture plays an important role in thriving parks and communities.

“The Detroit Parks Coalition, we’re a diverse group of park leaders, community stewards, and we’re working towards supporting healthy, equitable and vibrant parks in the city. And so we understand the role of not only programming, but arts and culture in achieving that mission,” Solomon said. “And so having this money to have Marcus not only visit these parks, but engage with them deeply, and kind of get this creative snapshot of the parks where they are now, and then offer it to people so they can come to these parks and there’s this accessible, beautiful music.”

While many Detroit parks share common characteristics, Elliot says he seeks to find and highlight what makes each park unique through the music. 

“There’s five different parks that I’m going to be kind of focusing on. And the themes that I’m going to be celebrating are really things that we see in all parks, but that certain parks may highlight a little bit more than others,” Elliot said. “So, you know, ideas of like joy, or community, or beauty. These are all elements that all of our parks have. But as I get to know these parks, I’m going to see just kind of which one of those elements speak more to me in those places.”

Use the media player above to hear to the full interview with Elliot and Solomon.

More headlines from The Metro on Aug. 6, 2024:

• Is now a good time to buy or lease an electric vehicle? Deputy Editor of Technology and Innovation for Automotive News Hannah Lutz joined the show to discuss the pros, cons, and the electric vehicle market.  
• Also on the show, we spoke with Region 1 Director for the United Auto Workers LaShawn English. The UAW endorsed Kamala Harris and we’ll discuss what the union hopes is on her agenda if she’s elected in November.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 11 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.