Shawnee Park is a municipal park

Park

A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...

 in Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted

Frederick Law Olmsted

Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...

, who designed 18 of the city's 123 public parks. Along with the rest of the city's Olmsted-designed park system, Shawnee Park was added to the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in 1982.

History

Shawnee Park was proposed in 1890 to be one of the three flagship parks in Louisville's new park system. All three were located on the geographic edges of the city, in Shawnee's case it was the western edge bordering the Ohio River. The land at the time was still mostly used for truck farms, but it was clear residential development was imminent even without the park. Shawnee was the slowest of the parks to develop, as much of the land was already owned by investors who figured they could increase the sale price by holding out.

The city had to condemn the properties to acquire the land for park, and won its case in 1895. In 1896, the city began to create access to the park, another area in which Shawnee was lagging behind the other two parks. River Park Drive was paved in 1899, but the Broadway entrance remained unfinished until 1914.

The Olmsted firm initially advised the city not to build a golf course at Shawnee Park due to the "grave danger to visitors in the park and especially the children" but demand was such that the course was built anyway in 1927.

All three parks had the intended effect of spurring residential development near them. The interest was so great that developers found themselves advertising the parks rather than their own developments, as the highest prices would exist for the park perceived to be best. Dozens of subdivisions were built near Shawnee Park, and the neighborhood itself came to be called Shawnee

Shawnee, Louisville

Shawnee is a neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky. Its boundaries are I-264, West Broadway and Northwestern Parkway . Maps sometimes identify the area as Shawneeland....

.

Shawnee Park was legally restricted to whites from 1924 to 1954, although park officials and police had a de facto

De facto

De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...

 policy of denying blacks access to the park for some years prior to that. The only sizable park blacks were allowed access to was nearby Chickasaw Park

Chickasaw Park

Chickasaw Park is a municipal park in Louisville, Kentucky's west end. It is fronted to the west by the Ohio River. It was formerly the country estate of political boss John Henry Whallen, and began development as a park in 1923, but was not completed until the 1930s...

, which many people entered by traveling through Shawnee.

Great Lawn

Although now overshadowed by the Louisville Waterfront Park

Louisville Waterfront Park

Louisville Waterfront Park is a municipal park adjacent to the downtown area of Louisville, Kentucky and the Ohio River. Specifically, it is adjacent to Louisville's wharf and Riverfront Plaza/Belvedere, which are situated to the west of the park....

, Shawnee boasts an expansive Great Lawn which is very useful for formal gatherings. The Great Lawn, the principal feature of the park, is enclosed by plantings and a circular drive that is lined with trees.

Riverwalk Trail

Louisville's Riverwalk Trail, which passes through Shawnee Park, extends across Louisville's waterfront, which is an extensive, mostly flat pedestrian pathway. The one-way distance between the Belvedere and Shawnee Park is 6.2 miles (10 km).

External links

• Metro Parks page
• Shawnee Park — The Cultural Landscape Foundation
• Satellite image of Shawnee Park