Elizabeth Park Trust

Ethel Francis Donaghue was a resident of West Hartford for nearly sixty years, living just a short distance from Elizabeth Park. In addition to creating The Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation, her will established a much smaller trust in her own name to conduct capital improvement projects in the park she lived near and loved so much.

Since its beginning in 1991, the Ethel F. Donaghue Trust for Elizabeth Park has supported many park improvements, including the building of the Sunrise Overlook on the east side of the park, enhancements to the Pond House, restoration of two greenhouses and the historic Putnam greenhouse, granite curbing and crosswalk in the expanded parking area near the Asylum Avenue entrance, and the restorations of the Farmstead buildings. The trust has also paid for numerous other small efforts over the years.

In 2005, the trust funded a new gateway for the Prospect Avenue entrance and a small, oval sitting area near the pond. The sitting area serves as a memorial to Ethel Donaghue.