Memorial Park is Houston’s largest park located in the Inner Loop of the city. Its 1,500 acres of forest, public spaces, and 30 miles of trails make it larger than New York’s Central Park, Chicago’s Lincoln Park, and London’s Hyde Park. Memorial Park is a unique natural, forested gateway and sanctuary where fellow citizens gather to compete in sports, to discover nature, and to engage each other socially.
Its location and proximity to high volume transportation routes make the Park’s playing courts, fields and pool accessible to people who live in or are visiting Houston. On a daily basis, individuals enter the park to run or walk along the crushed granite Seymour Liebermann Trail. Each spring for 65 years, trail riders –some coming on horseback from as far as Mexico– pay homage to Texas’ rural past and set up camp in the park in preparation for the final leg to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. At its center is the Memorial Park Golf Course, the first Works Progress Administration project in Houston, which to this day is largely considered to be the most beautiful municipal course in the state. Memorial Park provides a naturally beautiful oasis that replenishes the body, the mind, and the human spirit.
Early Memorial Park
The impetus for a public park emerged as early as 1912 when then Houston Mayor Horace Baldwin Rice envisioned a park for Houston along Buffalo Bayou “that will for all time be of sufficient magnitude for our people”. This aspiration was postponed by entry into World War I in 1917, which prompted the U.S. Army to lease land along Buffalo Bayou for a training camp to be named Camp Logan. The Camp was distinctive for the speed in which it was constructed and its massive size, equaling over half the size of Manhattan and home to over 1300 buildings. It was home to one of only two African-American training camps (over 75 of these men were awarded France’s Croix de Guerre). In addition, local social unrest prompted the death of several African-American soldiers, an event known as the Houston Riots of 1917.
At the conclusion of the war, a local citizen named Catherine Mary Emmott advocated that the City of Houston purchase a portion of the abandoned Camp Logan site and turn it into a park to memorialize the thousands of Camp Logan soldiers that were lost or wounded in the war. In 1924, the original aspiration of a park was fulfilled with the purchase of portions of the Camp Logan site by brothers William and Mike Hogg and Henry Stude, who subsequently sold the land at cost to the City of Houston. In May of that year, the City of Houston formally established the land as Memorial Park, in memory of the U. S. soldiers who lost their lives in the war effort.
Stewardship and Memorial Park Today
Since its establishment, a number of amenities and improvements have been installed by the City of Houston. Local citizens, spearheaded for many years by Miss Ima Hogg, have dedicated steadfast attention to protect the park from encroachments and civic priorities that would have endangered its natural beauty. In an effort to formalize the stewardship of Memorial Park, the Memorial Park Conservancy was established in 2000 with a mission to preserve, restore and enhance the park for the enjoyment of Houstonians today and tomorrow in partnership with the City of Houston.
In 2015, a Master Plan for the Park by renowned architectural landscaping firm Nelson Byrd Woltz was passed by Houston City Council . The plan focuses on further revealing the historical and cultural context of the park as well as providing extensive ecological restoration to strengthen the unique urban forest setting of Houston’s beloved green space.