Has a beloved Columbia park been neglected? Petition calls for fixes
It was an annual sight in Five Points: Miss Emmie and her young students walking two by two, hand-in-hand from their classroom at the nearby Shandon Park to the Edisto Farms Dairy on Harden Street.
“Everybody would have an ice cream cone and then we’d all walk back, two by two,” remembered Gayle Douglas Johnson, granddaughter of Emily “Miss Emmie” Douglas.
Douglas commanded her classrooms with song and with play. She was a Shandon matriarch who taught the neighborhood’s children for 30 years beginning during the height of the Great Depression.
But the park that bears her name today leaves something to be desired, say area residents. In the years since Douglas’ passing in 1963, the park has fallen out of repair, they say, threatening a key piece of Douglas’ legacy and hampering quality of life in one of the city’s densest neighborhoods.
“It’s just sad,” said Shandon resident Graeme Moore. “It’s just sad looking, [it] looks like something out of the Cold War era.”
Moore has started a petition urging the city of Columbia to be better stewards of the park by making a few specific upgrades. He has support from state lawmaker Seth Rose, another Shandon resident, and another 230 people who have signed his petition, which he started online on Change.org.
But turning the sentiment into real improvements depends on if and when any money materializes, and from where.
City of Columbia officials are open to the conversation, said assistant city manager Henry Simons, who oversees the parks department. But he couldn’t commit to any specific projects, dollar amounts or a timeline for when residents could expect to see progress at the park.
What are residents asking for?
The biggest update Moore and Rose say they want are tennis courts or pickleball courts at the sunken park, where steep staircases lead visitors into the green space that sits below the street.
Moore’s petition also asks for “meaningful improvements” to the small fenced dog park that sits on a corner of the park, “lusher”, better maintained landscaping and green spaces, and a new modernized and accessible playground.
“Emily Douglas Park has the location and visibility to be a true neighborhood anchor, but only if the City invests in it,” Moore’s petition adds.
The city of Columbia has already identified possible improvements to the park during a lengthy planning process that concluded early last year, which also included community meetings to gather public input. But what the city found during that process doesn’t exactly line up with what residents are asking for by signing Moore’s petition.
“So what our goal is going to be is to do a reset and go back to the community and kind of talk with them about what we see in the petition versus what we heard during our master planning process,” Simons said.
Among the work to Emily Douglas the city had already outlined during its master plan include:
- Additional seating and outdoor exercise stations
- Improvements to the dog park and irrigation system
- Upgrades to playground equipment and park lighting
- Expansion of the splash pad facility
- Enhanced ADA accessibility throughout the park
- Added trees and pavilion space for shade and gathering
- Renovation of the kitchen facility
But there is no money currently budgeted for any of that work.
Simons said the city is currently in the budgeting process for the coming year, and it’s possible money could be set aside in that budget for Emily Douglas improvements. But Simons couldn’t commit to anything specific. Simons said the city does have a priority list for park projects to receive funding, but he declined to specifically identify what those priorities are.
The city has made a few recent updates to Emily Douglas, including installing a new swing set last summer.
State representative Seth Rose, who also lives in Shandon, said he, too, would like to see the park improved.
“As someone who lives in the near vicinity, I don’t know that it’s really being – the amount of space that we have in that park – is being maximized to the extent it could be,” Rose said, adding that he agrees with the push to add tennis or pickleball courts at the site.
But paying for the work is the real question.
“My idea is that the city helps with the funding, and I, with my colleagues, could attempt to get a portion of the funding from the state as well,” Rose said.
While city officials didn’t commit to any dollar amount for Emily Douglas, the city has made considerable investments in its park’s system overall.
In August, the city revealed its $1 million upgrade to Mays Park near the intersection of Trenholm Road and Beltline Boulevard. Recently, the city council approved spending $1.6 million for a new community center at Southeast Park, off Garners Ferry Road. And of course in November, the city unveiled its dramatic $25 million remodel of the 18-acre Finlay Park downtown.
Who was Emily Douglas?
Miss Emmie Douglas believed above all else that children learn by playing. That’s why instead of calling her classroom of 4 and 5-year-olds “kindergarten,” she called it “play school.”
“She taught through songs and games and construction paper and white glue,” recalled Gayle Douglas, Emily’s granddaughter.
Emily Carter Douglas was born in 1879. She studied at Columbia College to become a music teacher. She was widowed during the Spanish flu epidemic, left to raise her son Billy on her own.
She worked for the city of Columbia for years, said Gayle. In 1950, the community successfully lobbied for the city to rename Shandon Park in her honor. But even after retirement, she continued operating an after-school program at the park, right up until a year before her death at 84 years old, Gayle recalled.
Gayle Douglas grew up in Emily’s house, and still lives there today.
When she and her brother were children, their grandmother would come into their room after their parents put them to sleep, and she would sing.
“Sweetest little feller, everybody knows, don’t know what to call him but he’s mighty like a rose,” Emily would sing to Gayle’s brother. And to Gayle, she’d sing “Old Kentucky Home.”
“She drew children to her like a magnet,” Gayle remembered.
The park is just one piece of Douglas’ legacy, but Gayle hopes the park can be protected as a gathering place, which is how her grandmother, the beloved community convener, always thought of it.
This story was originally published January 26, 2026 at 5:30 AM.
