Parks and Recreation System Master Plan Update (2016) parks_and_recreation_system_master_plan_update_oct | Page 57

One of Louisville’s most significant historic resources is the park system designed by
Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. (Cherokee Park, Shawnee Park, Iroquois Park, and interconnecting
parkways). As conceived by
Olmsted, Louisville’s three major
parks were to be linked by a
system of tree-lined parkways to
provide pleasure travel through
the city. This concept was never
fully realized and the parkways
are not currently connected as
Olmsted and far-sighted citizens
envisioned. Nevertheless, Olmsted’s parkway system remains an iconic part of the life of many
Louisville residents and is one of the most scenic and convenient ways to move around the city.
The Olmsted Parkways system consists of Northwestern, Southwestern, Eastern, Southern,
Algonquin, and Cherokee Parkways, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
along with Cherokee, Shawnee, and Iroquois Parks. The Olmsted Parks and Parkways system
contain a significant collection of historic landscapes of high integrity. Park visitors today enjoy
the fully mature landscapes envisioned by the Olmsted firm, now in place over 100 years. Many
Louisville landmarks, beloved for their natural beauty, are actually works of landscape
architectural art crafted by the Olmsted firm.
The influence of the Olmsted firm on the development of the Louisville Park System
continued for another generation under the leadership of John Charles Olmsted and Frederick
Law Olmsted Jr., stepson and son of the firm’s originator. Louisville participated in the
playground movement of the 1920s with a series of neighborhood parks around which the many
streetcar suburbs developed during the first three decades of the 20th Century. Many of these
parks retain their original design features and reinforce the historic identity of the
neighborhoods they serve.
In addition to the systematized planning efforts in Louisville 1890-1930, there are
individual properties with significant historic resources that have found their way into the park
system. Some of these parks, such as Joe Creason Park and George Rogers Clark Park are
fragments of revolutionary war land grants. They are home sites from the 1790 settlement
period, with family cemeteries and a known history of habitation.
Many other parks have significant historic and/or archeological resources, such as
McNeely, Creason and Wayside Parks and Long Run Cemetery (burial site of Abraham Lincoln’s
grandfather), which are likely eligible for the National Register and Local Landmark designation
as well.
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III. CONTEXT AND COMMUNITY INVENTORY | October 2016 Update