Public Parks
City of Grand Rapids
1909 City Street Guide
Antoine Campau Park, South Division between Seventh (Ryerson) and Eighth (Delaware) (Now public housing).
Baldwin Park, Lake Ave and Fulton (triangle where three streets meet; Fulton Street, Lake Drive and Union Avenue)
Coldbrook Park, Coldbrook and North Lafayette (Never heard of this park. This is all houses built c. 1920's)
Crescent Park, Bostwick and Crescent av (Now maintained or owned by some Van Andel medical building)
DeCommer Park, Third Ave (Grant) and PMRR (Pere Marquette
Railroad). (Well much of the railroad was covered up by
US131. Grant now ends at the freeway).
Ellsworth Ave Park, cor Ellsworth and Market (triangle where three streets used to meet; Ellsworth, Market and Fulton, today a parking lot and Ellsworth renamed Grandville but truncated by a parking lot)
Fifth Avenue Park Fifth Av cor S. Fuller (Fifth renamed Franklin, Fuller Avenue Park now Martin Luther King Park)
Foster Park, cor State and Prospect (triangle where three
streets meet: State, Prospect and Cherry.
Old timers say this was a cemetery.)
Fulton Street Park, bounded by E Park Pl, Fulton, W Park Pl (Sheldon) and Park (Library). Today Veterans' Memorial Park
Highland Golf Grounds s e corner of Fifth (Franklin) and
Giddings. (I remember hearing that the Ottawa Hills area had once
been a golf course).
Highland Park w s of Grand Ave n of G T Ry (west side of Grand Ave north of Grand Trunk Railway). I played in this park as a kid.
Hosken Park, Cherry and S Division. (There is a "new" concrete
park just created for homeless people full of graffiti, I mean
Art on the NW corner. Don't know where this park was).
John Ball Park, west end of west Fulton (Now owned by the county)
Julius Houseman Field, Houseman n e corner Fountain (was the home field of Central High School now everybody's)
Lincoln Park, W Bridge bet Marion and Garfield (still there)
Lookout Park, Clinton (Fairview) n w corner Newberry (still there but unkempt)
Mary Waters Field, N Lafayette and Legrand
Michigan Ave Park, Michigan and Coit (This was a parking lot for Pastoor's Grocery Store when I was a kid. Now it's a parking ramp for Butterworth Hospital)
Monument Park, Monroe, Fulton and Division
Pearl Park, Walker Ave and 7th. Probably that concrete triangle where three streets meet: Walker, 7th and Jennette
The Playgrounds, s w corner Burton and Madison (Garfield Park?)
State Street Park, cor State and Washington (triangle of three
streets: Jefferson, State and Washington. Calkins Law Office
was moved here).
West Michigan State Fairgrounds, Comstock Park (Village)
2011 - 71 parks and open spaces of 1210 acres.
Public Parks tended to be on land that was unsuitable for building - too steep, too sunken, too wet. But modern demands have caused the destruction of these parks or at least the former beauty is lost.
Antoine Campau Louis Campau's brother's farm. Gone for "free" housing for Blacks. But then Louis Campau Square has been replaced by Rosa Parks Circle. Rosa Parks who never lived in Grand Rapids is more important than the founder of the City.
Baldwin Park - Lake Drive at Union
Belknap A former cemetery and very steep hill mostly flattened for use as fill dirt for the expressway.
Crescent Park A steep hill overlooking downtown now an extension of Butterworth Hospital.
Creston Park A pond now "free" housing for Blacks who like living in water.
Highland Park - still there
John Ball - A steep hill and a swamp much taken by the expressway
Mary Waters - still there
I have tried to impact every source with corrections or comments so everything on this site is copyrighted. The information may be used for your project but the source must be cited.
From Heading History and the City of GrandRapids
From web site: MyCityofGrandRapids.info