If you take the passenger seat next to Britta Herwig when she’s zooming around on a golf cart in City Park, be prepared to take a ride through the past, present and future of one of Denver’s finest gems.
Like any fine gem, the City Park planner says, it possesses durability and great beauty.
“City Park was the people’s park when it was first built, in the late 1800s,” Herwig says, glancing at a heron gliding over Ferril Lake. “That hasn’t changed. What has changed is the way the park is used.”
Today, you’ll still find families gathering. But some of those grassy expanses have become soccer fields, and trees and playgrounds now dot the land. The clan is more likely to break out a Frisbee after a picnic than to head back to the family manse for a nap.
The neighborhoods that hug the area didn’t exist when Henry Meryweather first made plans for the park. But today, Herwig says, those communities are essential to it.
“The nice thing about it is, it’s a cultural meeting place,” she says of the park. “It’s situated in an area where a lot of different cultures live. It’s a great civic exercise for people of all different backgrounds to all come together.”
At 320 acres, City Park is the largest park in Denver. It boasts 15 athletic fields, 14 tennis courts and two playgrounds. The Denver Zoo and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science both lease land from the city, and the City Park Golf Course is a popular meeting spot.
“Part of the challenge for us is to draw people in for recreational opportunities, while still preserving what made this park great,” Herwig says.
Care has been taken, she says, to maintain some of the historic structures, like the Thatcher Memorial Fountain, the electric fountain in Ferril Lake and the Children’s Fountain. A plan to restore many City Park structures and gardens was launched in 2000. Most major renovations are complete, and park gardeners continue to replace trees and shrubs that are worn-out from the years with similar species.
“A lot of the big gateways and historic structures were donated by wealthy people,” Herwig says. The park has suffered phases of neglect since then. Right now, though, “there’s a huge resurgence in staying close to home. This park is well cared for.”
In fact, says Angela Casias, community relations specialist for Denver Parks and Recreation, neighborhood residents help care for the park. Individuals and groups recruited from businesses help with everything from seeding flower beds to helping build the 5K track that winds gently through the park — a loop whose markers point out spots where the elevation is exactly a mile high.
The 14 greenhouses in the northwest area of the park supply flowers and other plants to more than 150 city parks. But they’re not its only outstanding botanical feature. In the spring, crab apple trees burst into bloom, as does a thick hedge of lilacs. Some of the lilacs date to 1953.
Along the park’s west and south borders, an urban forest of oaks, cottonwoods, blue spruce, maples, catalpa, elm and ash provides shade for people and homes for an array of wildlife. Many of the trees are more than 100 years old. When age brings them down, care is taken to replace them with similar species.
At the southeast corner of the park, the Shakespeare Elm bears a plaque noting its planting in 1916 and that it was grown from a scion taken from a tree at the playwright’s grave.
“There’s no real proof of that, though,” says Herwig with a grin.
If you have out-of-town guests toting cameras, you’ll want to take them to the Benedict Garden and Kessler Plaza, behind the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. If the rose collection doesn’t take your breath away, the view of Denver’s skyline certainly will. If kids don’t appreciate the mountain view beyond the cityscape, it’s likely only because they’re busy playing in the water jet.
That’s only one way to cool off at the park. Ferril Lake and the Pavilions offer bike and paddle-boat rentals. The electric fountain in Ferril Lake puts on a colorful show.
And Duck Lake is a refuge for osprey, herons and other watchable water birds, proving that this swath of landscape refreshes more than human inhabitants.
It’s all part of the park’s balancing act.
“We have to juggle historic preservation with modern needs,” Herwig says. “As Denver gets more densely populated, we need parks like this more than ever. It provides a respite from people’s busy lives.”
CITY PARK
Where: East-Central Denver at 1799 N. York St.
What’s close: East High School, Colfax Avenue and businesses including Tattered Cover and Bluebird Theatre; plus the Denver Zoo and Museum of Nature & Science
Go now: At 6 p.m. Sunday, Chris Daniels and the Kings perform near the pavilion, wrapping the City Park Jazz free-concert series. City Park Esplanade Fresh Market runs 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 30.
Check this out
History: Look at the names of some of the fountains and landmarks in City Park, and you’ll see history unfold. Henry Meryweather was responsible for the initial park design, but architects John Humphreys and William Fisher pushed the design along with a Spanish-style touch, evident in the boat pavilion near Ferril Lake. Credit Reinhard Schuetze, a German immigrant and landscaper, with many of the formal gardens in the park and the Esplanade.
Splish splash: The largest lake in the park was built in 1896 and named after Colorado poet laureate Thomas Hornsby Ferril. The original electric fountain in the middle of the lake was designed in 1908 by engineer F.W. Darlington and has recently been reconstructed. Meanwhile, Thatcher Fountain, donated by banker Joseph Thatcher, was built in 1917.
Garden gates: McClellan Gateway is a perfect example of the generosity of the residents of Denver. In 1903, Councilman William McClellan used his life savings to have the stone gateway built. Sopris Gateway, a red sandstone structure, was designed in 1912 by Frank Edbrooke to honor Richard Sopris, mayor and first superintendent of parks.
Auld lang sign: The Robert Burns statue was donated in 1904; the Burns Memorial was erected at the site of the park’s first flower garden, established in 1878.
