There was a time when Elgin Woody was known as the “Mayor of Lincoln Park.”

But by the 1970s even that title didn’t seem sufficient for the Lawrence resident who had spent decades organizing baseball and softball leagues for Lawrence’s black youth. The city named the small park near Second and Maine streets after him.

So, it’s easy enough to understand why an idea by Lawrence Memorial Hospital to convert the park into a parking lot for its adjacent campus was met with skepticism.

“Our first instinct was ‘oh, no you don’t,” said Linda Bush, vice president of the Pinckney Neighborhood Association. “But then we got to thinking about it.”

The four-acre, one-ballfield park had become less and less of a jewel in the city’s park system, so much so that even the weakest of hitters could lose a ball in the brush that had encroached upon the outfield.

Now, Pinckney leaders are floating a plan that would allow the hospital to take over the park in exchange for providing financial support to create a new ballfield-park for the neighborhood, and to create a memorial to Woody on about a half-acre of the park’s current site.

Details on where the new park would be haven’t been finalized. But Pinckney leaders are asking for a site large enough to accommodate a multi-purpose athletic field for baseball, softball, soccer and other games. Amenities such as playground equipment, a shelter house, restrooms and ample parking also are being sought.

The neighborhood association is asking that the memorial to Woody include a baseball theme and plenty of benches, open space and a children’s area to accommodate LMH visitors who are looking for a quiet place to spend outside.

“We’re definitely saying we don’t want the park area paved completely,” Bush said.

LMH executives haven’t approved the plan, but are studying it with interest.

“We thought the letter was well thought out and reflected some very good study by the neighborhood,” said Janice Early-Weas, the hospital’s director of community relations. “I think we’ll be able to work something out.”

Family members of Woody also are supportive of the new plans, and have had discussions with LMH.

“My grandfather always was doing what he could to give people a place to be,” Greg Francisco said of Woody, who died in 1978. “That’s why we would like for this to happen. We would like for his name to live on.”

Financial details of how much LMH may need to contribute to take over the city-owned park haven’t been figured out. Picking a spot for a new park also could take some significant study.

Francisco said his family has an interest in seeing 22 acres of city-owned ground along Peterson Road near the Hallmark Cards plant developed into a park as part of the plan. City Parks and Recreation leaders long have had the property in their parks master plan, but have not had the funding to start the project.

The property, however, is just outside the Pinckney neighborhood, and Bush said there are concerns about neighborhood children being able to walk to the site.

Ernie Shaw, the city’s acting director of Parks and Recreation, said his department would review several locations if the plan moves forward. He said part of the project could be making improvements at existing parks in Pinckney — such as Clinton and Burcham parks — in addition to new properties like the Peterson site.

Early-Weas said the hospital will work to get a plan figured out sooner rather than later. The hospital has plans in the next 18 months to move its pain management center from LMH South to the main campus, which will create more demand for parking.

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