Stubbs Park Community Center Gym

Built in 1909 through a bond election (an earlier version of SPLOST), Stubbs Park is located at the heart of the Dublin community. Designed by famed horticulturist Prosper Julius Berckmans of Augusta, whose gardens later became the Augusta National Golf Club, the original design of Stubbs had a lake and many fountains. Berckmans and Col. John M. Stubbs of Dublin served together on the board of the Georgia Horticulture Society, and began designing the gardens surrounding Col. Stubbs home. Stubbs planned to leave a portion of these lands to the City of Dublin upon his death. On October 10, 1908, Stubbs’ family donated the land between North Church and North Calhoun Streets to the City and P. J. Berkman’s son, Robert set to work using his father’s original designs of the garden. The ten acre public park was completed in May, 1909. Stubbs Park has grown with the times. In the 1930’s, families embraced Stubbs Park, and began constructing homes on the hills surrounding the park and today, these houses are some of Dublin’s finest examples of Craftsman and Cape Cod architecture. In 1956, the Dublin Civitan Club installed one of Georgia’s first desegregated public swimming pools, and until the early 2000’s, Stubbs hosted the Dublin St. Patrick’s Arts and Crafts Festival. Sourced in part from a blog by Scott Thompson, Pieces of Our Past.