PALMDALE TO GET NEARLY 14 ACRES FOR PARK.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer PALMDALE - Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County will turn over ownership of nearly 14 acres in south Palmdale to the city for development of a historical park adjoining the 119-year-old Palmdale Cemetery cemetery, name used by early Christians to designate a place for burying the dead. First applied in Christian burials in the Roman catacombs, the word cemetery came into general usage in the 15th cent. . Plans for the land remain to be fleshed out, but in general the city is looking at a park that would honor the region's first white settlers. The park could also serve as a home for the community's first school, a one-room schoolhouse built in the 1880s and now located at McAdam Park, and hold exhibits detailing the railroad's impact on Palmdale's development. Officials are considering landscaping the area with indigenous plants. ``We could put the old schoolhouse there and put in a museum, trails and a picnic areas,'' said Mayor Jim Ledford. ``It's still in a conceptual stage.'' Palmdale is acquiring 13.7 acres east of the cemetery on 20th Street East at Avenue S at no cost from the county. The only requirement by the county in the transaction is that the land be used for a park or for recreational purposes. The land would revert re·vert v. 1. To return to a former condition, practice, subject, or belief. 2. To undergo genetic reversion. back to the county if the city fails to develop the land. The county acquired the property in 1951 for use as a park, but the land was never developed. ``The next step would be to get into some site planning Site planning in landscape architecture and architecture refers to the organizational stage of the landscape design process. It involves the organization of land use zoning, access, circulation, privacy, security, shelter, land drainage, and other factors. and scope out what a historical park would entail entail, in law, restriction of inheritance to a limited class of descendants for at least several generations. The object of entail is to preserve large estates in land from the disintegration that is caused by equal inheritance by all the heirs and by the ordinary ,'' Ledford said. One possibility is a museum to honor the region's early settlement, Palmenthal, founded in the 1880s by German and Swiss immigrants from Nebraska and Illinois. The adjoining cemetery was established in 1885 by Zion Lutheran Church to serve the settlement and whose graves include those of Palmenthal and Palmdale pioneers, some under markers inscribed in·scribe tr.v. in·scribed, in·scrib·ing, in·scribes 1. a. To write, print, carve, or engrave (words or letters) on or in a surface. b. To mark or engrave (a surface) with words or letters. in German. Ledford said the city has no interest in taking over the cemetery, which has stopped taking burials because of uncertainties about the locations of graves. The park area could benefit from an ongoing project by the city to widen wid·en tr. & intr.v. wid·ened, wid·en·ing, wid·ens To make or become wide or wider. wid  en·er n. Avenue S. The work will include a realignment re·a·lign tr.v. re·a·ligned, re·a·lign·ing, re·a·ligns 1. To put back into proper order or alignment. 2. To make new groupings of or working arrangements between. of the 20th Street East intersection, which could create opportunities for additional parking, Ledford said. There is no timetable for when the park would be developed. Jim Skeen, (661) 267-5743 james.skeen(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) Palmdale is planning to develop this land into a historical park. One possibility is to move a one-room schoolhouse there. The building now is in McAdam Park. Also, there could be exhibits showing the railroad's impact on the area. Exact details are uncertain. Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer |
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