The Restoration

of the Water Rill

The Friends of Oak Cliff Parks have taken on the goal of bringing about the full restoration of the historic Kiest Memorial Garden,its stone structures and Water Rill feature back to its original appearance in 1934. The garden was planned by Landscape Architect W. B. Woodruff in 1934 and built by workers of the Works Progress Administration in the same year. The original plan included a stone pergola that was 150 feet long by 16 feet wide that framed a view to the water rill. The water rill is a little brook, lined with stone that extends 300 feet through the heart of the garden. The rill flowed past formal gardens that included rose beds, cannas and candle trees. The Rill was once was crowned with a piece of statuary at its north end above a basin of flowing water. The statue served as the fountain head and main feature of the flowing water rill. The statue was of a frog. A small stream of water flowed from its mouth into the center of the larger oval basin below.

The Friends of Oak Cliff Parks have raised funds through donations and many hours of hard work to save and restore the rill. A grant of $15,000 was received from the Cain Foundation of Austin Texas to restore the hydrolic operation of the rill and for repairs and plastering of its basins. A grant of $10,000 was received from the Carnival Supermarket Foundation to use toward the creation of the historic frog statuary/fountain head and for flood lighting of the rill and statue for the surrounding trees. The restoration of the rill is nearing completion during the summer of 2007.

New Pump and Salt Filtration Equipment at Water Rill