Chuck Williams: The play that may have saved Golden Park

A week ago the home team was getting killed.

Golden Park was down a bunch of runs with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. Columbus Council was poised to end nearly 90 years of playing baseball on that site by declaring it surplus property and seeing who was interested.

City Manager Isaiah Hugley was requesting a resolution to see if the park that appraised for $3.735 million would attract a buyer. The bet here is it would have because it is prime property a mile south of downtown.

Goodbye baseball, hello condos — or so it looked.

But a funny thing happened. The home team put together an epic rally, and the comeback was sparked by a historian. Yep, a card-carrying history professor trained to look for facts.

Dr. Virginia Causey, a semi-retired Columbus State University instructor, didn’t like the idea of a piece of common land once owned by the state not being used for the common good.

And, through research she is doing on a book about Columbus, she was in a position to give Council information that caused the city to think twice about putting Golden Park up for sale.

Causey, who is married to Ledger-Enquirer columnist and reporter Tim Chitwood, found a December 28, 1920 article in the Columbus Enquirer-Sun that outlined the state’s donation of Golden Park, which includes all of what is now known as the South Commons. The land was given for recreational purposes, and only a vote of the people could change that.

“My number one priority, however, is preserving the South Commons for the use of the citizens of Columbus, NOT to sell it off to line the pockets of some developer. Columbus' original plan in 1828 surrounded the city with greenspace on north, east and south — Commons on all sides for the common use of the people,” Causey wrote in an email.

Other common land once owned by the state was gone.

“Very early, starting in the 1830s, the city sold off the north Commons for house lots except for Linwood Cemetery and the land where the Medical Center is,” she stated. “I think the area for METRA off Linwood Blvd probably is a remnant of the North Commons. During the Civil War, the East Commons began to industrialize, and that process accelerated after the war with location of big industries such as Lummus and Tom's. Freed slaves also squatted on the East Commons and their neighborhood developed into the black business district centered at Sixth Ave and Eighth Street. But the South Commons along the river has remained largely intact. It's all we have left and I want to keep it for the use of the citizens.”

So, with that reasoning, Causey swung into action. She sent emails to the council prior to the vote outlining what she had found.

Councilor Judy Thomas took note of the email.

“I get a lot of emails about this or that being historic,” Thomas said. “But there was something in her email that gave me pause and knowing who Dr. Causey is and that she is a historian, I forwarded it to the city attorney.”

Causey told council that she thought there was a “legal question.”

Turns out she was spot on, like an 82-mile-per-hour curveball that paints the corner. That caused council to table the matter.

Had Causey not stepped to the plate, council would have likely voted on it, Thomas said.

Elizabeth Barker, executive director of the Historic Columbus Foundation, praised Causey for stepping forward.

“What she has done is slow down the process so that a good, thoughtful conversation can be held,” Barker said. “I know that Historic Columbus looks forward to working with her to find a good solution for the property and the community.”

Not a bad idea. And one heck of a clutch hit by Causey.

This story was originally published March 29, 2016 at 10:40 AM with the headline "Chuck Williams: The play that may have saved Golden Park."