Chimney Park
Chimney Park is a 3.35-acre city park located in the Bohemia area, south of Gull Point, where Langley Avenue terminates into Scenic Highway. The park is centered around the remnants of a brick chimney, once part of the steam power plant for the Hyer-Knowles Planing Mill. When Confederate General Braxton Bragg evacuated his forces from Pensacola in March 1862, he was given a "scorched earth" command by Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin:
| Chimney Park | |
|---|---|
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| Size | 3.35 acres |
| Operated by | City of Pensacola Scenic Highway Foundation |
| Location | Scenic Highway and Langley Avenue in Bohemia |
| <googlemap lat="30.480532" lon="-87.162985" zoom="17" width="288" height="250">
30.480412, -87.162631, Chimney Park </googlemap> | |
Destroy all machinery private and public, which could be useful to the enemy: especially disable the sawmills in and around the Bay.
After the machinery was stripped from the mill, it was burned on March 10. However, the Confederate barges on which they loaded the equipment were sunk during a thunderstorm on the same night.
The park land was purchased by the City of Pensacola in the 1980s as part of a grassroots preservation effort in the Magnolia Bluff area (which also led to the establishment of nearby Bay Bluffs Park).[1] However, the chimney itself is owned by the Scenic Highway Foundation.[2] Some of the bricks in the chimney's base are marked "J. Gonzalez," indicating they were made locally at the brickyard owned by James Gonzalez.
Preservationist R. N. Dunagan volunteered much of his spare time clearing and improving the land at Chimney Park. After his death in 2000, the Scenic Highway Foundation erected a memorial plaque at the park in honor of his restoration efforts. The dedication ceremony took place on July 30, 2002 — what would have been Dunagan's 58th birthday.[2]
