LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- On any given day, you can find Dr. Aretha Fuqua serving up the history of tennis at Louisville's historic Chickasaw Park. She's the president of the 102-year-old West Louisville Tennis Club, which has called the park home since it's origin.
"We love our tennis," she said Friday.
Over the last century, the club has helped grow Chickasaw Park as a destination for tennis tournaments, clinics and weekly lessons. The courts, though, have reached a breaking point.
"There are severe cracks that run from one end of the wall to the other on all of these courts," Fuqua said.
Olmsted Parks Conservancy and the West Louisville Tennis Club are planning a restoration that would repair the issues, mainly large cracks, that exist on the six courts in the park now.
The tennis courts at Chickasaw Park have deteriorated.
Throughout February, the conservancy is working to raise $150,000 to match $150,000 allocated by Metro government.
"Chickasaw Park, up until the last two years, has suffered from deferred maintenance for 100 years," Fuqua said. "So we're finally in a place where we're getting the attention that we need, and it couldn't come at a better time."
"We've worked over the years for band aid fixes here and there, but it's really time for a total overhaul," added Jesse Hendrix, director of communications at Olmsted Parks Conservancy.
As a club working to provide learning opportunities and structured programs promoting the game of tennis with a focus on the west Louisville community, the renovation will help the West Louisville Tennis Club carry on its historic legacy.
To describe the impact in tennis terms, the $300,000 for restoration would mean: advantage community.
"I think that it's just a viable, healthy and safe resource available to this community that has a need," Fuqua said.
If the $150,000 fundraising goal is met in February, the additional $150,000 from the city would mean the project would be completed sometime this year.
For more information or to donate toward the restoration, click here.
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