Good-bye Stone Tables?

Recently (June 2021), White Rock Lake Park visitors were shocked and stunned to see all but two of the celebrated Stone Tables in the picnic area on the east side of the lake lying ina tangled heap, demolished, from all appearances, by a bulldozer. "What happened?" people wondered, "Weren't they going to be restored?"

Sometime ago, the White Rock Conservancy, a non-profit organization that has done some stellar work restoring other park structures, was given the job of restoring the Stone Tables. Picture of the group's plan can be seen on the White Rock Conservancy website. But what happened to the tables in June is not what a lot of people expected.

Not surprisingly, the decision to knock down the original, 90-year-old tables and turn them into a pile of rubble has been a source of controvery, as bewildered park visitors (some of them quite angry) wanted to know, "What happened?" For the latest news and information, provided by both the Conservancy and other WRL advocates, read this article in a recent edition of the Lakewood Advocate and also this report in the Dallas Observer.

A Stone Tables Retrospective

By Steven R. Butler, a.k.a. "The Watermelon Kid"

Stone Tables and Picnic Pavilion (2002). Author photo.

The Stone Tables were built in 1931 by the City of Dallas, soon after the land surrounding the lake became a park. The picnic pavilion was added in 1934, constructed by a New Deal agency called the Civil Works Administration. Until recently, there were 15 tables: 2 small game tables with inlaid chess boards, 9 slightly larger tables capable of providing seating for 4 to 8 people, and four large double tables, capable of providing seating for from 8 to 16 people. Most of them stood on the south side of the pavilion, between it and the nearby playground.

Here is a view of one of the four double tables and two of the single tables (2013) Author photo.

Thankfully, the two game tables did not end up in the rubble heap with all the other tables. Relocated to the rear of the picnic pavilion, they were masterfully restored by For The Love of the Lake board member Lucan Watkins, who volunteered to take on the task as a labor of love, so to speak.

One of the two game tables, in 2013, before restoration. Author photo.

Almost needless to say, several generations of White Rock Lake Park visitors have enjoyed the Stone Tables since they were first built some ninety years ago, including the family of this writer. In the 1950s, when I was a kid, this was a favorite spot for me and my parents when we wanted to have a picnic, roasting "weenies" on a grill or toasting marshmallows over an open fire on straighted wire coat-hangers. After eating, I'd play on the slides or the "teeter-totter" in the playground, or go fishing for "polliwogs" in the nearby lily pond, scooping them up with a paper cup, watching in amazement as they swam around for a few minutes in the cup, and then pouring them back into the pond, so that they could grow up and become frogs and eat all the flies that were the bane of picnickers!

Later, in the 1980s and '90s, I took my own family to Stone Tables to picnic and let my kids enjoy the playground. In more recent years, family outings have included my grandson. I'm sure there are thousands, perhaps millions of other people who have similar stories and memories.

A family picnic at Stone Tables (2013) Author photo.

So, what's the future of Stone Tables? Right now, based on what I've read and heard, the Conservancy is going to go ahead with its plans to renovate the area, but apparently with replica tables incorporating material taken from the originals, rather than restoring the originals in their entirety, which seems to be what a lot of people expected. But as of now (June 2021), this is an ongoing story, so: Stay tuned!

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