Standin' on the Corner Park
| Standin' on the Corner Park | |
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| Type | Municipal |
| Location | Winslow, Arizona |
| Coordinates | 35°1′24.54″N 110°41′53.03″W / 35.0234833°N 110.6980639°W |
| Created | 1999 |
| Operated by | Standin' on the Corner in Winslow, Arizona Park Committee |
| Status | Open all year |
Standin' on the Corner Park (opened 1999 in Winslow, Arizona) is a public park, commemorating the song "Take It Easy", written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey, and, most famously, recorded by the Eagles. The song includes the verse "Well, I'm a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona and such a fine sight to see. It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford slowin' down to take a look at me". The park contains a two-story trompe-l'œil mural by John Pugh, and a bronze statue of a life-sized man with a guitar from the Eagles song "Take it Easy" by Ron Adamson, standing on a corner with a guitar. The park is surrounded by a wall of bricks, each with a donor's name on it, and a story by each of the donors describing their fondness for Winslow.
Up until the 1960s, Winslow was a thriving town in northern Arizona just off Route 66. Construction of the $7.7 million bypass around Winslow began soon after 1977. When I-40 bypassed the community many local businesses disappeared, tourism being among the hardest hit. While some local jobs remained (as Winslow is the base of operation for a thousand railroad workers), the local downtown was badly hurt by the influx of national chains (such as Walmart and McDonald's) along the new interstate highway to the north of the town. Twenty years passed and Winslow was stuck in a commercial rut.
Winslow was the next to last town to be bypassed... We would watch hundreds of trucks roll by day and night. Then one morning, they opened (I-40) and everything stopped. For about 20 years, nobody knew what to do.
In 1997, the La Posada Hotel (a former Harvey House on the Santa Fe Railroad, long at risk for demolition) was restored and reopened. Listing of La Posada Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places served as a first step toward re-awakening the town.
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Wikipedia