Jason P.
Yelp
History lesson time... Gosh I love history.
Tower Grove Park was established by Henry Shaw on his own private land, this 280-acre linear park was designed and developed by Shaw and donated to the City of St. Louis in 1868. Officially opened to the public in 1872, Tower Grove has been characterized as the largest and best preserved 19th-century Gardenesque style city park in the United States, and is registered as a National Historic Landmark. Shaw believed that parks were important "not only as ornaments to a great city, but as conducive to the health and happiness of its inhabitants and to the advancement of refinement and culture."
Shaw, a businessman who sold goods to pioneers, was a native of the United Kingdom, and used his personal experiences as well as extensive travels around Europe to as inspiration for both the Missouri Botanical Gardens and Tower Grove Park. The strongest influence was John Claudius Loudon, whose writings promoted a gardenesque method of planting that featured wide spacing of specimens, which allowed each tree, shrub, and flower to grow to full size and shape without crowding, so that its color and form could be best observed and appreciated. In Loudon's view, this systematic arrangement was the preferred mode of public display because it facilitated an aesthetic response. From Shaw's perspective, perceiving the park and its exotic pavilions as works of art rather than works of nature would also underscore the distinction between the park and the surrounding area.
The park incorporates a series of pavilions, a music stand, shelter houses, mock ruins, lily ponds, bridges, fountains, statuary, stables, residences, and two conservatories, including the 1878 Palm House, the oldest standing greenhouse west of the Mississippi. The park also includes a collection of 435 varieties of more than 10,000 trees and woody shrubs.
*PHEW* That was a lot. Now onto my personal experiences.
To me, Tower Grove Park is leaps and bounds the best park in St. Louis. I love how accessible it is. You can always find parking, the surrounding neighborhoods are lively and offer a topiary of restaurants and shops for picking up food for picnics or grabbing a post-run coffee.
So many 5k races that I run start from the Sons of Rest pavilion, so I'm very familiar with the terrain. Tower Grove is great for runners because it offers flat straightaways or rolling hills for an extra challenge. My favorite part of Tower Grove, are the somewhat hidden trails that connect larger thruways. You feel so connected to nature.
The park offers so much to our city besides pure beauty. I have played kickball on the fields, hosted social distance picnics in the sprawling lawns, munched on some of the best foods at the Festival of Nations and sipped some of the best beer at food truck fridays.
There truly is something for everyone in this city gem. Don't walk through looking down at your phone because you'll miss some of the most breathtaking greenery in St. Louis.