McAlister Park
Summary
McAlister Park is a large park in Odyssey, which was donated to the city by the McAlister family, but after an issue of separation of church and state, ownership deferred back to the McAlister Family. Whit then bought it for $1 and put it in the Universal Press Foundation fund.
History
The land originally belonged to the McAlister Family, as they were the founding family of Odyssey. The park contained the town church at its edge. The church burned down in 1850, and sometime between then and 1910, the Fillmore Recreation Center was built after the Tate house by Lyle Architects. Some time during that period, the property was also donated by the McAlister Family to the city of Odyssey, on the conditions that the land should always be used to the glory of God, and that the land could never be sold. If these conditions were broken, then the ownership would revert back to the McAlister Family. The deed was kept in the McAlister Family bible, which was later sealed in the Odyssey time capsule. John Avery Whittaker tried to buy the Fillmore and adjoining lands for $3.5 million, but he was unable to purchase the lands, due to the terms of the original deed. When the mineral component of TA-418 was discovered under Whit's End (formerly the Fillmore Center) by Professor Bovril and Philip Glossman, Glossman used the city's rights as landowners of McAlister Park to quarantine the building because they claimed the mineral was dangerous. When Whit's End was closed for structural damage, it was noted that because McAlister Park belonged to the city (making it government property), Christianity couldn't be taught there. The McAlister clause was no longer known, as the deed was in the time capsule. When the deed was discovered, Mayor Margaret Faye ruled that the city of Odyssey could not allow Whit's End to continue acting as it had on government soil, and so the ownership of the land reverted back to Eleanor McAlister, and she sold it to Whit for the price of $1. Very shortly after this, Whit built a small city in the park just behind Whit's End, named Kidsboro, for the children of Odyssey to run, under Ryan Cummings.
Size
It's made abundantly clear that McAlister Park is very large, based on the amount of feature it contains. One evidence of this is that Whit's End and the Straussberg residence are both on different edges of the park (the latter as heard in #398: “A Case of Revenge”). The Straussberg's are neighbours to the Rathbone's (as heard in #397: “Tornado!”). The Rathbone's house is just around the corner from the Electric Palace (as heard is #397: “Tornado!”). In #83: “The Battle, Part 1”, Eugene states that the walk between Whit's End and the Electric Palace is quite far for a man of Whit's "social position", thus it may be deduced that the edges of the park separating the Straussberg house and Whit's End are quite far apart.
Soil
The soil under Whit's End, and thus presumably in the general soil around that edge of McAlister Park, contains a very unusual mineral. This mineral was used by the Natives and Reverend Andrew Jamison , who called it "The Silent One", for healing salves. Whit used the mineral to create TA-418, and the mineral's presence was Blackgaard's motivation for trying to get Whit's End for so long. Professor Bovril also found that the mineral had so many catalytic properties (despite its natural state of being inert) that he declared it could be the most significant scientific discovery of the past 100 years.
Features
- Three Softball fields
- Whit's End
- Playground equipment
- Kidsboro
- Woods
- Ponds
- A maintenance road to Whit's End
- The entrance to the Underground Railroad Tunnel