Two more Victor parks

I got a little surprise a few weeks ago. As I was working on my presentation for the Adirondack Mountain Society, and visiting the Victor website for information, I noticed the town had two parks on their list which I had not visited, or even heard about.

Having already completed my 100-park goal, I could have ignored them. But they would have always been hanging out there, unvisited, taunting me. So of course I had to tie up that loose end.

I took a drive out to Victor.

Mead Square Park

Mead Square Park is a pocket park right in the middle of the village. I have no idea how I have missed it in all my travels there.

It’s named after Dr. Alfred Mead, a country doctor and village leader who served the town for decades back in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

This pleasant little park has a pathway, green things and benches. I suspect it is used for the village’s many festivals and special events throughout the year. There’s also a Horses on Parade still standing there. It sits beside the Auburn Trail, which would make it a great rest spot for hikers and bikers.

Village on the Park

Don't try looking for this “park” on a map. It’s listed on the Victor website as one of the town’s parks, but if you plug that into a Google search, the results say nothing about a park. Ditto if you ask Google Maps to find it for you.

Taking the location as indicated on the website, and closely inspecting a Google map of the area, I kind of got an idea of where exactly this park was. But I couldn't tell for sure until I actually drove out there to look for it.

Turns out, Village on the Park is not a park. It’s a housing development with two dedicated recreation areas. There’s a playground, complete with a gazebo, on one of the neighborhood streets, and two large soccer fields off another. Good thing they’re not baseball fields, because they’re so close to the Thruway that a long fly ball might take out a windshield.

I’m sure the playground is used mostly by neighborhood kids. The Victor Soccer Club calls the fields home. But for anyone else, this “park” is not really a destination.

I’m thinking the name of this park is kind of a bait and switch. It really should be “Park on the Village.”