UPDATE, July 15, 2018 / Another sunny day in the low 90 degrees with high humidity presented a good time to pause at the Cliff Preston Tribute garden in the Farmers Plaza for the refreshing view of the Jaycees Marina and all the activity in the Riverwalk quarry. One year ago, friends of the Naperville Riverwalk gathered at this entrance to the winding brick path along Eagle Street to recognize Preston for his stellar dedication to the Riverwalk and other community endeavors.
UPDATE, July 15, 2017 / Oh, what a glorious day for a dedication in Naperville, Illinois!
Above / Cliff Preston’s family and many friends attended the dedication of the new garden along the Riverwalk that recognizes Naperville’s can-do spirit.
UPDATE, July 13, 2017 / Today members of the Riverwalk Foundation and Riverwalk Commission are grateful to Park Operations Manager Chuck Papanos and the Naperville Park District Riverwalk crews for their assistance in setting the stage for the Tribute to Cliff Preston. The commemorative garden will be dedicated during a brief ceremony at 10AM Sat., July 15. The public is welcome.
Above / The Farmers Plaza, overlooking the Riverwalk Quarry with the Jaycees Marina, was selected for the Tribute to Cliff Preston to commemorate his dedication to the community since the mid-1950s and his affiliation with the Riverwalk since its inception more than 36 years ago. Early in the morning on July 13, 2017, the quarry, one of many amenities along the city’s natural treasure, had attracted fishermen and paddlers as well as double-crested cormorants, squirrels and other wildlife.
Original Post, July 7, 2017 / The Riverwalk Foundation recently announced that the Cliff Preston Tribute located in the Farmers Plaza along the Riverwalk will be dedicated with Preston family and friends at 10AM Sat., July 15. The public is welcome.
Preston, who died on June 3, 2016, at age 90, is remembered for his can-do spirit and dedication to building the Riverwalk, the city’s gift to its citizens to commemorate its first 150 years in 1981. Though involved since its inception, Preston served officially on the Riverwalk Commission for more than 16 years where he was chairman for a decade until he retired from the commission in 2003. He used his never-ending energy to help with design, development and extension of the winding brick path from the Jefferson Avenue Bridge to Hillside Road as well as at Fredenhagen Park.
The site at Eagle Street was selected because Preston had a special fondness for that location of the Riverwalk. For more than 20 years, he had assumed responsibility to keep the antique plow atop the Farmers Monument varnished and painted. At the time, he was a member of the Wheatland Plowing Match Association, the group along with other farmers that funded the monument in the mid-1980s. Further, when he found the monument was being scratched because some folks got too close to it, he had the idea to place hitching posts connected by chains around it to protect it.
The proximity of the Farmers’ Plaza to the fishing pier overlooking the quarry and the Jaycees Marina suggests other reasons the site is perfect. Preston was an avid fisherman. He also was among the early members of the Naperville Jaycees back in the mid-1950s.
The design for the Cliff Preston Tribute was created by Monica Goshorn-Maroney of Gary R. Weber Associates, Inc., via approval by the 13-member Riverwalk Commission under the leadership of Chairman Geoff Roehll, working with the Preston family and the Riverwalk Foundation. The landscaping and new plantings were funded by gifts to the Riverwalk Foundation.
In April, with landscape rendering in hand, Chuck Papanos and park district staff removed the overgrown landscaping and Riverwalk Foundation member Jeff Havel volunteered to handle the construction coordination along with Papanos for the private nonprofit organization that funded the project.
In late April, a five-man crew from Sebert Landscaping began digging the area that had been cleared by Naperville Park District crews in order to install five trees, create a rock wall and place the boulder to be enhanced with a commemorative plaque to identify the Cliff Preston Tribute.
After the landscaping was finished, park district crews planted perennials and finished other restoration work.
The Cliff Preston Tribute will be dedicated on July 15 during the Riverwalk’s 35th anniversary year. The city’s natural treasure turns 36 years old on Sept. 7, 2017.
What a joy it’s been in recent months to watch the transformation of the entrance to the Riverwalk at Eagle Street as the landscape rendering with lilac trees and sweet gum trees becomes a reality!
—Stephanie Penick,
Positively Naperville
For full disclosure, Penick was a founding member of the Riverwalk Foundation in 1998 and she loves the Riverwalk!
