Saturday, Founders Day Goes Green to Honor Lansdale Parks

Between the festive Festival of the Arts in the morning and the explosive fireworks display after dark, Lansdale Founders Day has always been a colorful affair.

But this Saturday, new hues will debut.

The verdant greens of park lawns and trees. The crystal blue of pool waters. And the many luminous shades that draw bees and butterflies to wildflower fields.

Founders Day 2019 – themed Relax. Play. Swim. – is focused on Lansdale’s extensive system of public parks, and it's dedicated to the memory of the man who built that system into today’s crown jewel, longtime Parks and Recreation director Carl Saldutti.

"Each Founders Day we pick a special piece of Lansdale's history to celebrate. This seemed to be the perfect year to feature the Borough's magnificent parks system,” says Mary Fuller, who heads Discover Lansdale and serves on the Founders Day committee. "Because of Carl, as well as other founding fathers over the years, Lansdale Borough has a parks system that can make others green with envy.”

Added this year is a walking tour of Whites Road Park at 3 p.m., led by the Lansdale Historical Society. As you stroll the wooded paths, learn about 19th-century predecessor Edgewood Park, Lansdale’s version of an amusement park, as well as the park’s later life as an unofficial town dump before being reborn as today’s active locale for swimming, tennis and community concerts.

The Historical Society’s display in the borough hall lobby, from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., will feature a photo history of Lansdale’s municipal parks as well as other vintage photos from the area, including local favorite West Point Park. "Additionally, in borough hall, the historical society will be giving away many old photos to anyone who would like them,” says Fuller.

The official opening ceremonies, at 10:15 at borough hall, again spotlight citizens who have made a lasting difference to life in Lansdale. This year’s recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award are Frank and Georgette Koehler, proprietors of Koehler’s Jewelers at Main and Broad Sts., for their decades of service to the town. "This year for the first time, we're honoring a husband and wife team who have both dedicated many years to building and enhancing the Lansdale community,” says Fuller.

Also new: Diesel train excursions all weekend on the New Hope and Ivyland Railroad, including southern runs on Founders Day Saturday along the Stony Creek Branch to West Point. It’s believed to be the first time a passenger train has traveled those tracks since the 1930s. (Sadly, equipment issues sidelined the originally scheduled steam engine.)