Quality of Life
Parks improve, grow
Brooke Kilgore of Coweta shoots a photograph in the Beatrice Sheddan Children’s Garden, part of the Honor Heights Park Papilion. The garden and Papilion are part of the evolution of Honor Heights Park. (File photo) Former Honor Heights Park Naturalist Tom Roberts looks at one of the stone benches and tables the Works Progress Administration built at Honor Heights Park during the Depression. WPA workers also build a shady stone pavilion at Elliott Park. (File photo)
By Cathy Spaulding
Muskogee Phoenix
L
eaders throughout Muskogee’s history have pushed for parks. “We have nice-sized parks for a town our size,” said Muskogee Parks and Recreation Director Mark Wilkerson. “That’s partly due to the fact of early city leaders, who came from somewhere else, big cities in the east where they had grand parks. I think the desire for the city leaders to have a central park is probably why they worked towards Honor Heights Park, so we would have a regional park-like attraction.” Honor Heights was established in 1909 on the north side of Agency Hill, after the city bought 40 acres from the Creek Nation, said Former Honor Heights Naturalist Tom Roberts. In 1911, a landscape architect was brought in from England to design the park. One of his designs was the waterfall flowing down Agency Hill. Works Projects Administration projects added during the 1930s enhanced Honor Heights and other Muskogee parks. “A lot of the big boulders you see throughout the park were part of that,” he said. “Those were all brought in on mule-driven wagon trains. All brought in by WPA workers.” Boulders as big as a compact car were brought in by wagon train, Roberts said. The WPA built stone benches, picnic tables, even
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GUIDE Muskogee | 2022
Parks and green spaces • Beckman Park, North 16th Street and West Broadway. • Bill Pool Park, Gawf and Foltz lanes. • Civitan Park, 3301 Gibson St. • Coody Creek Bark Park, 1121 S. Second St. • Depot Green, Third and Elgin streets. • Douglas-Maxey Park, South Sixth Street and West Southside Boulevard. • Elliott Park, Altamont Street and Tower Hill Boulevard. • Gulick Park, South Seventh and Elgin streets. • Honor Heights Park, Between Agency Hill and 48th Street. • King Park, Gibson Street and East Side Boulevard.
• Langston Park, Euclid and Sandlow streets. • Optimist Park, South F and Independence streets. • Palmer Park, Honor Heights Drive and Denison Street. • Robison Park, Augusta and Gulick streets. • Rooney Park, 2300 Military Boulevard. • Rotary Park, South 24th and Elgin streets. • Spaulding Park, East Okmulgee Avenue and East Side Boulevard. IN THE WORKS: Grandview Park, behind Hilldale Elementary School.
