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Per the city website, the park is on the site of an old reservoir and was donated to the City by Governor John Miller, John O'Fallon, Louis LaBeaume and others.
The park has walking paths throughout the park, a basketball court in the round, a mid-century service building, a beautiful spray pool, and a playground.
Curiously enough, Garrison-Branter-Webster Park is not listed on the city website, although it certainly does exist.
The park has basketball courts and tennis courts. The basketball courts are in playable condition although there are spray painted messages all over. Some more perplexing than others.
This is a small pocket park that kind of serves as the "town square" of a small 1980's development that has a very unique, kind of Disney or movie-set feel. It is not typical St. Louis, but I imagine it has an appeal for folks just wanting privacy and a sense of insular seclusion.
The park had the feel of somewhere you shouldn't be if you don't live in the surrounding Kingsbury Place homes. I got weird looks from the 2 families that were there. It's surely not a destination place, but it is a really nice and almost charming place if not a wee bit contrived. The park feels private not public which I believe is the intent of this part of town. In fact, you won't find the typical city park signage with brown wood with white etched lettering here.
The park is located near Hamilton and Westminster and is pretty hard to find and even harder to get to because of the crazy dead ends, one ways, bollards, etc that make navigating this neighborhood a puzzling maze.
Anyhow, I jumped a few curbs and finally found this park which is nothing more than a small playground and football field complete with 2 field goals.
You can tell there are a lot kids spending time here and there were two young families using the park on my visit, one playing soccer, the other playing on the playground. I try and talk to the young families about where they plan on sending their kids to school and talk up the ones I know about and urge them to give the city schools a try. This particular family wants to stay in St. Louis and are excited about trying the magnets.
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.
Mount Pevely now has plants growing out of it. Nature is going to take over the mound of debris that St. Louis University and, the City of St. Louis and specifically,
has left for the property owners, employees, students, residents, patients, tourists and tax payers to enjoy for over a year.
Remember if the city ever cites you for peeling paint on your porch to remind them that the non tax-paying institutions aren't following the rules either.
This is a giant middle finger raised up high in the air over Tiffany, Midtown and the Gate District. Shameful.
This property has been in this condition since April, 2012. I'm sick of it and feel kind of powerless that this stuff continues to happen.
Thanks a lot SLU. Thanks a lot City of St. Louis. Not only did you guys approve a demolition of a building on the national historic registry, you half tore them down, made huge mounds so everyone can see and then left it to sit for nearly a year and a half.
When is enough enough? Is anyone else disgusted by the arrogance of non-profit institutes and the lame City "leaders" that rubber stamp this kind of thing?
Weak indeed.
I try to stick to the golden rule and "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all". But sometimes you just have to scratch your head, wonder how this can be allowed to happen and speak out that this just can't continue. Mount Pevely devalues the entire area. It's a black eye on the Near South Side.
Remember when Fr. Biondi threatened the city with moving the medical campus to West County? Here's his quote from February, 2012 addressing the
:
“What I foresee, if you don’t approve our request, is that we would have to shut down our medical school and find property in west county,” noting that 35 years ago, Maryville offered up land for the university to move west. SOURCE
I wonder if West County would have allowed this stop/start/stop tactic? P
Read more history related to this topic here:
Preservation Research Story:
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.
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