GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The City of Grand Rapids began demolition of the historic lodge at Martin Luther King Park Wednesday morning, also marking the start of construction for the new MLK Lodge, which is expected to open in the summer of 2025.
As crews began tearing down the building, several neighbors of the park arrived. Some cars even stopped on the side of the road to take photos. It was one last look at a lodge, they say, that provided so much.
"It just looks like a big building, but there's a lot of life that's gone on inside there, and I will miss that part," said Ellen Atkins, program coordinator for the MLK Park Neighborhood Association, who has been living there for almost 50 years. She says there is some difficulty in watching the old lodge be torn down.
"My children, my grandchildren played in this park," said Atkins. "This building has a lot of memories for me. I'm looking forward to the new building because I will just make new memories, but there's a lot of mixed feelings looking at this today."
A set date for the new MLK Lodge, part of a nearly $20 million project to improve MLK Park, has not yet been announced.
The new lodge will see an updated, year-round gymnasium with a full basketball court, locker and changing rooms for the pool, gathering spaces for class and recreational use and an office for the neighborhood association.
There will also be a pool house that will serve as a new entrance to the pool deck.
"This investment I think is so critical for this community that historically has been overlooked and under invested in," said David Marquardt, director of Grand Rapids Parks and Recreation. "Voters of Grand Rapids in 2019 overwhelmingly supported a parks millage, a portion of which is going toward this project, but more importantly that's really allowed us to leverage some very significant state and federal dollars to make this project possible."
Atkins says neighbors are also looking forward to seeing the play area move towards a less busy area of road, and the new gym for the kids to play basketball in year-round.
She is also excited to see an investment into a neighborhood that both the city and neighbors say has historically not been given the love it deserves.
"It shows that they care about the third ward," said Atkins. "There's not always been a lot of good things happening here, and I feel like we've been kind of being ignored. This is an investment from the city, and we are happy that they're making the investment. We're worth it."
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