Women’s Park in Miami to pay tribute to founder Roxcy Bolton

A quarter century ago, activist, feminist and trailblazer Roxcy Bolton had an idea to create the nation’s first park dedicated to honoring the contributions of women. That $1 million, 16-acre Women’s Park at 10251 W. Flagler St. in West Miami-Dade opened in December 1992.

At the ceremony, Bolton, the founding president of the Miami-Dade chapter of the National Organization for Women, was named Mother of the Park. “Twenty-five years ago, this park wouldn’t have happened,” Bolton said at the opening, as dignitaries celebrated a park that featured trail markers to tell the stories of women, such as environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and a life-size statue of Julia Tuttle, Miami’s founder and the only woman to found a major city in the United States.

Bolton, a longtime Coral Gables resident, died May 17 at 90.

At 10 a.m. Saturday, officials from Miami-Dade County Parks and the county will pay tribute to Bolton in a ceremony that will feature the planting of a yellow Poinciana tree in her honor.

More: Read the obituary on Roxcy Bolton.

At the opening ceremony, women leaders, including Bolton, the late M. Athalie Range, the first black woman elected to office in Miami, and the late Mattie Belle Davis, the first female county judge, buried a time capsule to commemorate the 72nd anniversary of the 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. The capsule includes the works of Douglas, Cuban anthropologist Lydia Cabrera, news articles and greetings from first ladies Barbara Bush and Hillary Clinton.

The capsule will be opened in 2020 on the Amendment’s 100th anniversary, Silvia Unzueta, a member of the original founding committee, said at Bolton’s memorial service in May.

This story was originally published June 6, 2017 at 5:32 PM with the headline "Women’s Park in Miami to pay tribute to founder Roxcy Bolton."