Millcreek should honor Gifford legacy at Zem Zem site
I have a suggestion if Millcreek Township pursues plans for a community center at the Zem Zem property at 38th and Zuck: Work the Gifford name into the project.
Before the Zem Zem Shrine Club obtained the property, it was the Gifford Farm and in its own way a community center adjoining Zuck Park. Mr. Gifford was an Erie lawyer. I can no longer remember his first name or that of his wife.
Teens and families would swim, fish and picnic at a spring-fed pond near the center of the property. At the pond there was a dock and small boat house. At some point in the early to mid-1960s, a floating platform was placed in the middle of the pond. I spent many a night camped out by the pond in the summer, catching and cooking blue gills. On occasions Boy Scout troops would camp there.
In the winter the snow would be cleared from the pond for ice-skating. There was a steep hill on the Zuck Road side and I and others spent hours tobogganing there.