Chickasaw Park
Chickasaw Park is a municipal park in Louisville, Kentucky's west end. It is fronted to the west by the Ohio River and by Southwestern Parkway to the east. It was formerly the country estate of political boss John Henry Whallen, and began development as a park in 1923, but was not completed until the 1930s. The original plan for Chickasaw Park was designed by the Frederick Law Olmsted firm and is part of the Olmsted Park System, but was a later addition, as Shawnee, Iroquois, and Cherokee Parks were designed in the 1880s by Frederick Law Olmsted himself.[1]
| Chickasaw Park | |
|---|---|
 Chickasaw Park's fishing pond | |
| |
| Type | Municipal park |
| Location | Louisville, Kentucky |
| Coordinates | 38°14′32″N 85°49′54″W |
| Area | 61 acres (25 ha) |
| Created | 1923 |
| Operated by | Metro Parks |
The City Parks Commission passed a resolution in 1924 making Chickasaw Park and a few other small parks black-only and making the larger parks in the city white-only. The park was desegregated by Mayor Andrew Broaddus in 1955 after the NAACP aided three Louisville residents take the city to court over the inequalities between the white- and black-only parks in Louisville in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education.[2]
The park features the city's only free clay tennis courts. Other features include a basketball court, a pond, a sprayground, two playgrounds, a lodge, and two picnic pavilions.[3]
References
- Fitzpatrick, Virginia (1982). Frederick Law Olmsted and the Louisville Park System. Indiana: Indiana University.
- Wright, George (1992). A History of Blacks in Kentucky, Volume II: In Pursuit of Equality, 1890-1980. Frankfort: The Kentucky Historical Society.
- "Chickasaw Park". Louisville Metro Government. Retrieved April 14, 2013.