Eileen Bogdanoff has lived across the street from the new Ruckstuhl Park on Idylwood Road for 12 years and estimates that she started working on the park about ten years ago with fellow residents at Idylwood Towers.
Year after year when the Fairfax County budget was released, Bogdanoff would study it, hoping to find funding for Ruckstuhl Park, and finally, five years ago money showed up, thanks to county voters who had approved a bond referendum for parks.
Rejuvenated and assured that something was finally going to happen, Bogdanoff contacted the Fairfax County Park Authority (FCPA) to tell it just exactly what the neighborhood was thinking for the park.
FCPA’s representatives listened, and they listened some more in countless meetings and exchanges over the years with Idylwood Towers.
The results came in Saturday morning when the park was formally opened.
“The response from my neighbors has been very positive,” Bogdanoff emailed. “This park is just what the community needed and I already see that it is being well used.”
FCPA “responded to all of our suggestions positively and made it just what we wanted – a safe, secure, beautiful natural looking space to unwind from life‘s pressures.”
The park has an ADA-compliant asphalt trail of about a half mile, playground and fitness equipment, a picnic area, a parking lot, and best of all, a tranquil natural setting with benches for visitors to sit for a while, enjoy some peace and hear birds sing.
On the southeastern side, vegetation hides I-66’s sights and most of its constant hum.
At Saturday’s ceremony, Alan Rowsome, executive director of the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust, gave a biographical sketch of Lillian Ruckstuhl who began living on the property about the time she got her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1958 when women doctors were not as common as they are today, he said.
Over the years living on Idylwood, Ruckstuhl was bothered by encroaching development, and she decided to preserve her 7.2 acres as a public park.
She contacted the Trust who met with her several times and was the beneficiary of her property when Ruckstuhl died in 2008. But the Trust, Rowsome explained, is not in the business of land development and management, and it negotiated with the FCPA for $250,000, or a fraction of its market value, so FCPA could take over Ruckstuhl’s land and make a park, following her directive that athletic fields be banned. (They are.)
Many in the neighborhood still remember Ruckstuhl and her goats, sheep, dogs, and horses which roamed the property.
David Goldberg, a long-time neighbor, came over to the park’s grand opening with his dog, Max, to celebrate the “wonderful legacy” Ruckstuhl left the community.
From their backyard, he and his family used to watch Ruckstuhl’s animals, and now they’re enjoying the park’s amenities and the fox which sometimes follows him and Max around the loop when they walk at night.
“I’m sure that Dr. Ruckstuhl would be pleased to know that her beloved property continues to bring happiness to both people and animals,” Goldberg emailed.
Last Saturday morning was just what the doctor ordered: On the beautiful day, children sailed high in the air on new swings, crawled through a tunnel, and played the butterfly xylophones while Fairfax County dignitaries cut the ribbon, with a little help from all the park’s new friends.
Using the big scissors were Fairfax County Providence supervisor Dalia Palchik, Providence FCPA board member Ken Quincy, and the FCPA executive director Jai Cole.
“This ribbon cutting is just the beginning of countless memories, quiet walks, and joyful moments for families across the Providence District,” Palchik said.
She surprised Quincy, who is retiring soon from the board, with a tribute and proclamation thanking him for his service of 18 years. Quincy was on the board when the master plan for Ruckstuhl was developed in 2015.
