The park’s official name is Yacht Basin Park but most locals call it Mom’s Park.
Yacht Basin Park is located in Riverside on the west bank of Willowbranch Creek, where it enters the St. Johns River.
“The City purchased the property in 1921, and Jacksonville’s oldest social organization, the Florida Yacht Club established in 1877, resided adjacent to the site from 1907 till 1928. Eventually the City’s Water Services Division (taken over by JEA in 1997) placed a pump station at the site, and JEA renovated the park in 2001 with landscaping, lighting, and the construction of a gazebo and a brick-paved plaza and walkway.”
In 2002, Jim Overton allocated money from his bond account for the creation of a bronze statue in memory of Mrs. Austin, wife of former State Attorney and Jacksonville Mayor, Ed Austin.
At it’s completion in 2003, the bronze sculpture,”Mom’s Statue” was placed outside the Florida Times Union Performing Arts Center. A dedication plaque, which is titled “Mom’s Park”, was installed at the park in February 2004. Most folks have called it Mom’s Park ever since.
The plaque contains a poem “On Children” by Kahil Gibran;
And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, “Speak to us of Children.”
And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
Yacht Basin Park “Mom’s Park”
2941 St. Johns Avenue
Jacksonville, FL 32205
