An illustration shows the proposed redesign of Peace Memorial Park in Riverside | City of Jacksonville
Published on April 23, 2025 at 3:44 pm
Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Sign up for the Jacksonville Today newsletter.
Visitors making plans to walk the community labyrinth proposed for Peace Memorial Park in Riverside could soon have more to take in thanks to a public-private partnership.
City Council members Matt Carlucci and Jimmy Peluso announced Tuesday that the total investment in the in the park revamp at 2874 Park St. has risen to $965,000 with a $735,000 contribution from the family of J. Wayne Weaver and Ronald Morris Weaver and possibly $100,000 from the city.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
Legislation introduced Tuesday night by the councilmen and renderings provided by the city show the additional dollars would pay for a central memorial, floral landscaping, pathways and other features to update the city-owned park on top of what the Friends of the Labyrinth community group first conceived in 2021.
For the Weavers, the project is a way to immortalize and honor the memory of Wayne and Ronald’s parents, Ouida Crawford Weaver Bonnoyer and Harry Bruno Bonnoyer, according to a news release from Carlucci’s office.
Peluso, whose district includes Riverside, tells Jacksonville Today that Carlucci led the effort to bring together the coalition of the Weaver families, Riverside Avondale Preservation and Friends of the Labyrinth to fund the vast majority of the project with private dollars.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
“We got the labyrinth folks and the Weavers and Riverside Avondale Preservation and the Parks Department all kind of come together (to) sort of build something that I think a lot of people are pretty happy about,” Peluso said. “That was always a space that was a little bit vacant, and it’s right across the street from a beautiful historic library, and across the street from our incredible Willowbranch Park. So, I think a lot of people want to do something, and the labyrinth was the first big thing, and now we’re adding in this other piece that I think a lot of folks are going to be pleased with.”
The city acquired Peace Memorial Park in 1916 as part of the original 13-acres of Willbowbranch Park. In 1951, the Garden Club of Jacksonville executed a plan to create “a place of reflection and beauty,” planting 200 roses and dedicating the space also called Peace Memorial Rose Garden Park.
Ordinance 2025-0277 would appropriate the $965,000 for the park renovation — $735,000 from the Weavers through a grant from the Community Foundation of Northeast Florida Inc.; $130,000 from the Park’s, Recreation and Communities Service Trust fund raised by RAP and the Labyrinth group; and $100,000 in city funds from the Countywide Parks and Recreation Projects Project.
The bill would also officially rename the space as Peace Memorial Park.
“Through this effort, all parties have strived to create something beautiful and respectful of the history of Peace Memorial Park, ensuring that no single element overshadows another and that respect is paid to all involved,” Carlucci said in the release. “When Wayne called me and shared his heartfelt wish to honor his mother and father, my heart was warmed to tears.”
A labryinth is a walking path meant to aid meditation and prayer. It has no dead ends and a single route to get to its center.
According to Peluso, this will be the first public labyrinth in Jacksonville.
If approved by council, the project will be added to the city’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan, which Peluso says will also determine when construction can begin.
