Murphy Park

Murphy Park is 1 of 108 St. Louis parks making up 10.1 acres of the total 2,956 acres of parkland in the city.  It was placed into ordinance in 1962 and is in the Carr Square Neighborhood just north of Downtown.  The park is bordered by Hogan Street to the east, Murphy Park Drive to the north, Phipps Street to the west and the Jefferson Elementary School to the south.

There's something I really like about these mid-century parks.  They are heavy on the concrete and feel very urban.  Makes me want to break out the Vision Gator and skate like its 1979.  The 1960's parks don't as much seek to provide a green space, natural getaway as much as they intend to be a city park, a complement to their surroundings.  Heck, even the horseshoe pits are surrounded by concrete.

Anyhow, the things you'll see here are a stone and concrete stage, a playground, tennis, basketball and as mentioned above horseshoes.

 bigger kid playground

See the round planters in the above photo?  Those need red maples planted in them.

metal slides are a thing of the past, this is the coolest one I've seen so far

 'stone stage'

little one's playground

There is also a really nice baseball field built in 2007 by Cardinals Care, dedicated to Lou Brock, one of the most beloved Cardinals of all time.

 infield just needs a little Roundup and dragging

I love the setting of this park.  While many of the surrounding homes are contemporary and not something that will ever be considered landmarks or historic in years to come, they have people living in them and that is good.

The park sits in the shadow of the beautiful St. Stanislaus Kostka church, mid-century Jefferson School and the smokestack of the former Falstaff plant (now apartments).

Falstaff smokestack in the distance

Murphy Park needs to be loved by it's neighborhood.  The park looks used, but also abused.  It needs some TLC and sweat equity.  The city doesn't just do this stuff, it is up to the constituency to push for upgrades like slide repairs, new trees, horseshoe posts, basketball rims, etc.  

 the locals haven't bothered to work with the park's dept for rims

 broken slides

another trashed slide, city put up fence to keep people off, neighbors tore it up

And of course, people need to help pick up trash.  

kid's spaces and Mad Dog, a scary combination

I'd love to see the residents of Carr Square work toward making this park the place it was designed to be.