It’s a warm summer afternoon, and Richard James, an employee at the Biomedical Library, is enjoying his lunch at a picnic table near the BioPond. It’s his third day on the job at Penn.

“I’ve never worked someplace that has such greenery like Penn, especially in a city that’s so built up,” says James. “It’s so grand and attractive.”

Mary Ellen McGowan, from Fox Chase, and her fiancé are taking in the botanical garden’s beauty while waiting for an appointment at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center.

“This part of the campus is a very lovely place to visit, and completely charming,” McGowan says.

A peaceful haven from the bustle of city-living, the BioPond and its surrounding botanical garden, officially known as the James G. Kaskey Memorial Park, maintain an appeal unlike any other place on Penn’s campus. The Department of Biology’s 3-acre gem, just off of 37th street and Hamilton Walk, is shaded, quiet, and the epitome of relaxing, open to community members from near or far. There’s even a commercial grill on site that can be rented and utilized for events.

The park also serves as a sound arena for teaching and learning. Whether art students are recreating its beauty on canvas, veterinary students are researching wildlife, or biology students are studying plant diversity, the park is an indispensable setting for education.

Linda Robinson, an adjunct assistant professor and instructional lab coordinator for the biology department, says her students in the fall will be sampling leaves in the park to determine the bacteria present.

“Being in the city, it makes a huge difference to be able to expose students to more of a natural environment,” Robinson says.

The park’s garden and pond were originally created under Provost Charles C. Harrison in the 1890s. J.T. Rothrock, then chair of the Department of Botany, and John M. MacFarlane, a former professor in the same department, are specifically credited for presenting the idea and implementing it, respectively. Before its transformation into a research garden, the property was a waste ground.

Tracylea Byford, who was the botanical garden’s manager for more than 35 years until her retirement in 2015, recalls the space being “overgrown without a lot of organization” before she came on board in 1979.

“It was in a pretty precipitous decline, and wasn’t really used,” Byford says.

There was more of a focus on the biology department’s greenhouses back then, and the garden was put on the backburner, she says. At one point, the University tossed around the idea of building a dormitory for nursing students at the site.

Overseeing numerous tasks at once, Byford and her team still worked hard to make the garden attractive and useable.

“My goal all along was to make it a place where everyone wanted to visit,” says Byford. “That way, there would be incentive to preserve it.”

It wasn’t until the early 1990s when the park’s potential was realized again—it became known as a “salvation for students to clear their heads,” and a great resource for academics, Byford says. In 2001, a gracious donation from Richard Kaskey, a Wharton School alumnus, and his wife Jeanne, in memory of their late son James, enabled a much-needed renovation. (The family also set up an endowment for the everlasting care of the garden.)

“There was probably about 3 feet of mud on the bottom of the old pond, which was impossible to get into and clean,” explains Byford. “Since we couldn’t maintain it, a bad odor started to develop.”

The donation allowed Byford to lead a rework of the pond. It was dredged, relined, and its edges were redefined. A natural-looking waterfall and weeping water walls were added.

The botanical garden perceived today is something “magical,” Byford says, while chatting on the phone from her new home in Vermont. “It’s just a small scrap of land, and I’ll never be able to put my finger on it, but there’s just something about that place that has such a draw.”

Since November, Joshua Darfler has been working as the garden and greenhouse manager, alongside gardener Tom McNichols and greenhouse coordinator Samara Gray.

Over the next few months, Darfler, who has his master’s degree in public horticulture, will be guiding a small renovation of the pond that will fix key mechanical issues and also install some planting islands.

“I’m really hoping to get plants reestablished into the pond,” Darfler says. “I’m hoping for water lilies, lotus, and other native wetland plants.”

Darfler and his team will work to restore the pond to a more native and natural condition, too. Working with veterinarians and fish experts, they will assess the koi and turtle population, which have both grown to unsustainable numbers recently. For several years, students have dropped off their unwanted pet turtles before heading home for summer vacation. The turtle numbers have grown dramatically—recent Penn Vet graduate Rachel Ruden identified and tagged more than 45 in 2013—and are impacting the ability to keep aquatic plants growing in the pond, Darfler explains.

As far as the garden goes, Darfler says, “there are some really great bones in the garden here, and I’m excited to be working with it and continuing to learn the history.”

His plan is to step up the display features, diversifying the variety of plants, while also increasing the educational proponent of the garden with signage for everyday visitors.

“I want Kaskey Park to really be a destination,” Darfler says. “Instead of people just walking through to get from Point A to Point B, I want more of those individuals to stop and read about what’s here.”