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Accessibility from the surrounding neighborhoods is pretty rough, as you have to cross 6 traffic lanes and a median if you are walking from the larger Ellendale neighborhood to the west. The park is accessible from the north on the chat easement of the River Des Pares drainage ditches. There are homeless people who've set up shop here under the Arsenal bridge as signs of bon fires and meals and graffiti are everywhere.
As can be seen by the satellite image above, there are sports fields consolidated on the south side of the park and a central walkway and lily pond which you'll see photos of herein and the park is bordered by wide sidewalks which are popular with joggers, dog walkers, stroller pushers and the like.
Francis Park is one of 2 parks serving the beautiful St. Louis Hills neighborhood, along with Willmore Park. The neighborhood that flanks the park includes tree lined streets, a school, churches on every corner and lots and lots of well maintained and cared for homes. You can tell there is a lot of neighborhood pride in this part of the city.
The shutting off of the Thurman underpass had some unintended consequences. One, it became a hangout for the knuckleheads to gather en masse. Broken glass and trash piled up and it became an eye sore and intimidating for the average person to traverse. Two, it separated communities.
However, this part of Shaw/Botanical Heights is prepping for a major transformation. In 2012 the Garden District Commission put together a design competition for improvement in the area. UIC was eventually chosen as the winning design and this will include repaving the street, installing new lighting and a bike path and pedestrian trail.
Fountain Park was designed to be a treasure on St. Louis' near north side. It is an oval shaped park surrounded by beautiful homes, churches and a former business building. It is the one park to servethe Fountain Park Neighborhood.
Fairground Park is the home of the first municipal swimming pool in St. Louis opened in 1912. In 1949 the pool was opened to black folks in a response from a Federal court procedure saying it was against the 14th amendment to disallow people from public pools, golf courses, etc based on race.
A race riot ensued. Read all about it in an excellent story by Kate Boudreau that was published on NextSTL.
There is an old hand-laid retaining wall that is still in place on the north side of the park.
Other than that, nothing to see folks...move right along.
There is no signage or otherwise that would identify this as a St. Louis park...nothing. There is nothing here, just a few random trees and mowed weeds.
The park is located between Eads Avenue, California, St. Vincent and where Ohio Avenue would be if the street grid were not dismantled to accommodate the strangely out of place suburban complexes of Eads Square, Lafayette Habilitation Center and the former National/Schnucks/Foodland/Sav-A-Lot property which is undergoing a re-facing as I write this post. Read all about that here.
The coolest thing I learned today was from talking to some guys who just got back from the Real Madrid-Inter Milan match Downtown. They were kicking the ball around. I struck up a conversation and it turns out DeSoto Park is the site of a long-running adult semi-pro soccer league. It is played on Sunday's and it is an International scene with players from Mexico, Central and South America, Bosnia, Croatia, Poland, of course old time St. Louis guys, etc. These guys described an awesome scene where the families of the players cook out and socialize while watch the games. The fields are in good condition as are the goals.
The park was placed into ordinance in 1867. It takes up 35.8 acres of land near in the neighborhood of Compton Heights.
The homes that surround the park are nothing short of amazing. There are high rise apartments, condos, single and multi-family homes...all typical St. Louis beauties.
This park has arguably the most unique topography in all of the city. It is in low lying land that looks up to the surrounding homes. The unconventional winding streets are not common for St. Louis where the recti-linear street grid rules in most of the city.
This neighborhood with its mix of larger frame Victorian style houses is quite unique for St. Louis. In fact, it reminds me of the small suburban city of Webster Groves, MO (pop. 22,989). The Victorian stylings seem to flow down through the park from the surrounding neighborhood creating winding walkways that all seem to lead toward the lake that is really the heart of the park.
Christy Park, according to the city website, is comprised of 16.1 acres of park land, established in 1910. There are no official boundaries listed on that website, so I can only assume that Christy Park and Joseph Leisure Parks are one in the same. There is actually a band of parks that start at Kingshighway and Christy and head south and east toward the River Des Peres, following the Great Rivers Greenway Trail starting near Christy and Holly Hills Boulevards.
Chouteau Park is just largely a graded empty lot right now, awaiting funds to become a fully realized park space. The design was done by H3 studios in 2009 who seem to be the firm that does all the park designs/master plans (Fox Park, Carondelet, etc).
The full plan can be found here. An update was provided by Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corp. back in November, 2011...
The vast majority of this park is really just grass from the outfields of both fields.
The exception is the southeastern section which is quite shaded with nice large and newly planted trees. This section of the park has swings and a playground and a building with storage and bathrooms. It was locked
The park is the first I've visited with a swimming pool. It appeared to be in really nice condition and it was good to see. Moms with kids in tow ranging from little ones to teens were present cooling off on a typically scorching July St. Louis day. There was a lifeguard and security guard on duty and this pool is free to all St. Louis residents.
Carondelet Lions Park...no not that Carondelet Park, the other one. This park is located in the Carondelet Neighborhood, right in the shadow of the awesome, recently renovated Coca-Cola syrup plant, now called the Temtor that houses the delicious Perennial Artisan Ales...and has a lot of people living there now within its apartments.
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