About - Memphis Parks

Discover your parks

Mission

Memphis Parks creates positive and safe places to provide community-centered experiences that connect all Memphians, celebrate life, and strengthen mind and body.

Our History

Established in 1900 as the Memphis Park Commission, the Parks Division has served as the leading steward of Memphis greenspace for over a century. The current Memphis park system has played a vital role in our city’s history, and it was designed to provide recreation throughout all neighborhoods. In 1901, landscape architect George Kessler created plans for a parkway system like those in Boston, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. Overton and Riverside Parks were connected by long, leafy avenues in a formal pattern that preserved green spaces and provided a dominant grid pattern, giving shape to the City’s eastward expansion. The parkway system is now listed on the National Historic Register.

As Memphis grew, so did the city-owned parkland and facilities. Robert Church, the City’s first African-American millionaire, established a park that still bears his name. Galloway Golf Course was created in 1923 when the Red Acres subdivision deeded it to the City. The Overton Park Shell — now the Levitt Shell — was created as a WPA project in 1936 and proved popular for outdoor concerts. And now the Memphis Parks Master Plan has created a 10-year blueprint for providing quality parks and recreation facilities and services throughout Memphis to continue to make the parks a resource for all.