GOV
About our City Parks
Our parks are a great asset. They provide vital green space, opportunity to be active, contribute to the local economy, and provide critical wildlife habitat.
St. Louisans have had a long love affair with their parks. From the crown jewel of the Parks Department, Forest Park, to the smallest park, Aboussie Park in Soulard, St. Louis residents make their neighborhood parks part of their lives. Parks serve as the anchor of city neighborhoods.
Francis Park is the center of St. Louis Hills, Lafayette Park anchors Lafayette Square, Fairground residents gather in Fairground Park and we are all proud of Forest Park, the heart of St. Louis.
Parks serve as gathering spots for neighborhood meetings, summer concerts and weddings. They are wonderful places to take a stroll, have a picnic, use a playground or watch a softball game. Everyday hundreds of walkers and runners, bikers and bladers and dogs and their owners crowd the paths and sidewalks.
Parks host countless weddings, parties, picnics, family reunions, rallies, and even memorial services. When the Rams won the Super Bowl, the celebration was in Kiener Plaza, a city park. When we hosted the World's Fair, it was in a city park. Almost all outdoor art work is in a city park. (Even the Gateway Arch is in a park, although it is a federal park, not a city park.) Parks also provide a quiet place to get away from the city. And that was their original intent.
It's the Parks Division of the Parks Department that operates and maintains the 110 parks in the City of St. Louis. A city of only 62 square miles has 2,956 acres of park land. The Parks Division also maintains all facilities in the parks including 8 Recreation Centers, playgrounds, fountains, countless statues and monuments, the Jewel Box and the World's Fair Pavilion in Forest Park, tennis, handball and horseshoe courts and baseball, softball, soccer, and rugby fields.
Workers in the park's greenhouses grow the flowers that are displayed in the Jewel Box and those that are used as bedding plans in outdoor gardens throughout the city. More than 300,000 flowering and foliage plants are propagated and planted each year.
Discover our City Parks and Amenities
