Trees being planted in Lexington’s Triangle Park, April 28, 1982. Scheduled for completion by mid-June, the park still needed finishing touches including grading, grass, lighting and brick work. The park opened July 2, 1982 before an estimated 4,000 people who oohed and aahed as the lights and fountains came on. The project, on the 1.4-acre slice of land bordered by West Main Street, Vine Street and Broadway, once seemed dead because the Urban County Government didn’t have enough money to build it. But private citizens got together, formed Triangle Foundation, raised $1 million and with the government’s help help finished the park in time for the city’s Fourth of July celebration. Developer Alex G. Campbell, who led the foundation, said none of those who began work on the park “two years ago could have foreseen the development of this tract into the park we see today.” He predicted that the park would become a symbol of Lexington as “the arch is to St. Louis and the space needle is to Seattle.” Years after Rupp Arena was finished in 1976, the area that became the park was a parking lot. Today the park, which features fountains in a series of “water steps”, is smoke free and hosts a number of events from the city’s Christmas tree lightning to Fountain Films on Friday. In the background of the image is Rupp Arena, the Lexington Center and the Hyatt Regency hotel. Photo by Charles Bertram | staff file photo