Landscape Information
Sloping gently downhill from Dexter Avenue on the west to Ninth Avenue on the east, this rectilinear four-and-a-half-acre park is bound by Denny Way on the south and John Street to the north. Regarded as the city’s oldest public park, it occupies land donated by David and Louisa Boren Denny in 1864 for use as a public cemetery.
In 1883 the Dennys rededicated the site as a public park and the interred were exhumed and relocated approximately one-and-a-half miles northeast. In 1893 landscape architect E.O. Schwagerl prepared a general plan featuring curvilinear paths and slopping lawns. The Picturesque design was realized in 1895 and in 1903 the park was improved with formal plantings, pavilions, and recreational amenities. In 1930 the site was significantly regraded and redesigned by landscape architect L. Glenn Hall.
Anchored to the west by an administration building (1948) by architects Young and Richardson, the site is bound by a perimeter sidewalk and is characterized by geometric lawns dotted with irregularly planted deciduous and coniferous trees including sycamore, maple, birch, and a giant sequoia specimen. The latter was planted in 1932 to commemorate George Washington’s bicentennial birthday.
The park is divided by symmetrical, axial paths that meet at a central bed planted with a mature American witch-hazel, shrubs, and ferns. Diagonal paths enter from each corner, while two parallel north-south oriented ones connect John Street and Denny Way. The two parallel paths frame approximately 50-foot-wide rectilinear panels marked by a dog park to the north and a lawn to the south. The paths are edged by concrete curbs and beds planted with hydrangeas, dogwoods and rhododendrons.
The park was rehabilitated in 2017 with improved paving and lighting.
