- Memorial Park, Houston, Texas
Infobox park
park=Memorial Parkthumb|right|Memorial_Park
image size=
caption=
type=Municipal (Houston, Texas )
location=Memorial, Houston
coordinates=
size=1466 acres
opened=1924
operator=The Hermann Park Conservancy
annual visitors=
status=Memorial Park, a municipal park in Houston,
Texas , is one of the largest urban parks in theUnited States . Opened in 1924, the park covers approximately convert|1466|acre|km2|0 inside the610 Loop , across from the neighborhood of Memorial. Memorial Drive runs through the park, heading east to downtown Houston and west to the 610 Loop. I-10 borders the park to the north. The park was originally designed by landscape architects Hare & Hare of Kansas City,Missouri .From 1917 to 1923, the land where the park currently exists was the site of
Camp Logan , aWorld War I US Army training camp. During wartime, the training camp was located on the far west boundaries of Houston. After the war in early 1924, Will and Mike Hogg, purchased convert|1503|acre|km2|0 of former Camp Logan land and sold the area to the city at cost. In May 1924, the City of Houston took ownership of the land to be used a "memorial" park dedicated to the memory to the soldiers who lost their life serving in World War I. The park is adjacent to theCamp Logan , Crestwood, andRice Military neighborhoods.The park includes the 18-hole Memorial Park Golf Course, Texas’s top-rated municipal golf course which opened in 1936. The course has a
course rating of 73 and a slope rating of 122. The golf course was designed by John Bredemus. The course was renovated at the cost of $7 million in 1995.The park also has facilities for tennis, softball, swimming, track, croquet, volleyball, skating, cycling and a three-mile (5 km) running course, and is very popular with Houston joggers. The park is also home to the Seymour Lieberman Exercise Trail, a three-mile (5 km) crushed granite pathway that sees almost 3 million visits annually.
On the south side of Memorial Drive, there are miles of multi-use trails through the woods, a 'picnic' loop which is used heavily by road cyclists, softball fields, sand volleyball courts and a field for playing rugby or soccer.
The
Houston Arboretum and Nature Center , anarboretum andbotanical garden , sits on convert|155|acre|km2|1 within the park. The Nature Center building was constructed in 1967.ee also
External links
Official websites
* [http://www.houstontx.gov/abouthouston/exploringmemorial.html Memorial Park Official Website]
* [http://www.memorialparkconservancy.org/ Memorial Park Conservancy]
* [http://www.houstonarboretum.org/ Houston Arboretum and Nature Center]
* [http://www.houstontx.gov/municipalgolf/memorial/index.html Memorial Park Golf Course]Maps, photos and aerial photos
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