No matter what the season, Wilcox Park in Westerly is a nice place to go for a walk. The 14-acre park is located in the center of town, across from Town Hall.

The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo

Skates and scooters are prohibited in Westerly’s Wilcox Park. And even though visitors may encounter joggers there, the mile of paved paths was designed for strolling, says Sarah Johnson, assistant horticulturist in the 14-acre park.

During the summer, Johnson worked with park director Alan Peck, planting and maintaining the park’s arboretum, meadow, flower gardens, and a pond shared by ducks, fish, amphibians and lotus blossoms.

On New Year’s Day, dozens of youngsters on sleds flew down the park’s highest hill, covered with newly fallen snow.

Wilcox Park is private property, says Johnson. It is owned by the Memorial and Library Association of Westerly. Most of the land was donated in 1898 by Harriet Wilcox in memory of her husband, Stephen Wilcox.

Starting with two farms, the park was designed by Warren H. Manning, a former associate of Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of New York’s Central Park and Boston’s “Emerald Necklace.”

Wilcox Park lies in the center of town, behind the library, across from Westerly Town Hall.

“The park presents different images depending on how it is approached,” says the Project for Public Spaces, a national group. “If entering from the steps of Westerly Town Hall, (itself an impressive granite building), one gets the impression of a formalistic Baroque park, complete with statuary and a fountain. Elsewhere, however, the park has meandering paved paths and the feel of a less formal English garden.”

“We feel it’s important to maintain the tone of a Victorian strolling park,” says Johnson. Generally, the park is a quiet place except for the laughter of children as they climb atop the statue of the Runaway Bunny. The Bunny is one of several sculptured pieces in the park, including a monument to women, a Spanish-American War “Hiker,” a statue of Christopher Columbus and others.

The park’s fountain, near the library, is a monument to Harriet and Stephen Wilcox. During the heat of summer, mothers dip their toddlers’ feet in the cool water, but, usually, the fountain is a quiet place to rest or read.

Johnson, the horticulturist, is also a licensed arborist. She describes her job as “varied and wonderful.”

She and Peck care for about 500 trees in Wilcox Park, including some unusual specimens such as a variegated maple. But, Johnson says, even an ordinary Norway maple possesses its own story and beauty.

Asked about her favorite trees in the park, she answers, “That’s like asking a mother which is her favorite child. I love them all. Each one is so beautiful, it speaks for itself.”

The trees and shrubs of Wilcox Park offer four seasons of sensory excitement.

Delicious scents first appear in the dead of winter when two varieties of witch hazel begin to bloom. Then, long before the other flowers of spring appear, an exceptionally fragrant variety of honeysuckle explodes near the park’s pond. Its scent is so delightful that taxonomists named it Lonicera fragrantissima.

During the heat of summer, perennial flower gardens burst with shimmering color.

The trees are alive with a full palette of colors beginning with the canary-yellow blossoms on ornamental cherry trees near the Christopher Columbus statue in early spring. They’re followed by an elegant display of crab-apple blossoms. Summer is all about a hundred shades of green. Vivid red and golden hues illuminate maples in autumn. During early and mid-winter, the park is brightened by evergreen boughs and the colorful trunks of London plain trees and interesting birches.

Wilcox Park is an ideal place for a stroll.

tmeade@projo.com