Landscape Information
Situated in the middle of downtown Sanford, the park was once the location of the 1875 Willard residence. It was purchased by the town and developed as a park in 1934, using funds from the Federal Emergency Relief Project along with money raised by selling salvaged building materials from the original homestead. Landscape architect Arthur Shurcliff, who was designing nearby Gowen Memorial Park around this time, purportedly worked on Central Park, but no documentation survives to support this attribution.
Located on a trapezoidal lot, less than an acre, with streets on three sides, the park’s original design featured a broad path lined with benches and ornamental lampposts and edged with a lawn border. Short paths connect to the surrounding streets, with small-scale commercial buildings and the red brick town hall facing the park. The park was planted with deciduous shrub borders and shade trees, including elms, and a brick gazebo occupied the park’s central lawn. The Sanford Board of Trade commissioned a statue of benefactor Thomas Goodall in 1917 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his arrival to Maine. Originally sited in the middle of Main Street facing Goodall’s textile mills, the sculpture was relocated to Center Park in 1967.
Modern additions such as a veteran’s memorial, a commemorative flagpole, new benches and lampposts, and clipped yews at several entrances have been added, but the original layout and historic context of this town common nestled within its small-scale commercial setting remains.
