Roger Williams Park to get a $10M makeover

December 8, 2015 1:04 pm

By News Staff

news@abc6.com

A major restoration plan is taking place at Roger Williams Park.

In celebrating of its 100th year, the Rhode Island Foundation announced Tuesday that it is donating 1.5 million dollars and helping raise a total of 10 million dollars to fund updates in the park.

Five million of that will be set aside for future use. The restoration includes improvements to the museum, popular park entrances, new signage, expanded walkways, and bicycle paths. The work will also include improvements to the Bandstand, Casino, and the Temple of Music.

The foundation, which marks its centennial next year, says it’s already raised $4.5 million to help pay for the improvements.

"Through this campaign and by the generous support of so many of the friends of the city and friends of the park, we’re going to make sure that we not only open up this park to many folks who otherwise wouldn’t visit, but were going to preserve the park forever after," says Mayor Jorge Elorza. "It is truly a living, breathing, wonderful peoples’ park of Rhode Island."

More than 1.5 million people visit the park each year. Work on the upgrades is expected to start early next year.