Iroquois Park
Encyclopedia
Park
A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...
in Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
, Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...
, who also designed Louisville's Cherokee Park
Cherokee Park
Cherokee Park is a municipal park located in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It was designed, like 18 of Louisville's 123 public parks, by Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of landscape architecture...
and Shawnee Park
Shawnee Park
Shawnee Park is a municipal park in Louisville, Kentucky. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed 18 of the city's 123 public parks...
, at what were then the edges of the city. Located south of downtown, Iroquois Park was promoted as "Louisville's Yellowstone
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...
". It is built on a large knob covered with old growth forest
Old growth forest
An old-growth forest is a forest that has attained great age , and thereby exhibits unique ecological features. An old growth forest has also usually reached a climax community...
, and its most prominent feature are the scenic viewpoints atop the hill.
The summit of Iroquois Park presents an all-at-once vista of the city of Louisville, seen from the south. A bronze plaque at the site demonstrates the plan of the city's park and parkway system as planned and executed by Olmsted's firm.
The park features an amphitheater
Amphitheatre
An amphitheatre is an open-air venue used for entertainment and performances.There are two similar, but distinct, types of structure for which the word "amphitheatre" is used: Ancient Roman amphitheatres were large central performance spaces surrounded by ascending seating, and were commonly used...
, basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
courts, a disc golf
Disc golf
Disc golf is a disc game in which individual players throw a flying disc into a basket or at a target. According to the Professional Disc Golf Association, "The object of the game is to traverse a course from beginning to end in the fewest number of throws of the disc." Of the more than 3000...
course and a riding stable. Broadway at Iroquois (formerly Music Theatre Louisville) stages shows each summer at the park's amphitheater.
History
Iroquois Park was one of the three major suburban parks created in the late 19th century in Louisville. In 1889, Mayor Charles Donald JacobCharles Donald Jacob
Charles Donald Jacob served four terms as mayor of Louisville, Kentucky, two consecutively in 1873-78, then later in 1882-84 and 1888-90. He also served as the U.S. minister to Colombia in 1885-1886. He was a member of the Democratic Party....
purchased Burnt Knob, a 313 acre (1.3 km²) tract of land 4 miles (6 km) south of the city, for $9,000, and was reimbursed by the city treasurer without approval from the city council or public referendum, meaning the original purchase was probably illegal. Jacob also negotiated with landowners between the city and the then-rural park to acquire the right of way for a 150 foot (46 m) wide "Grand Boulevard", today's Southern Parkway, which still leads to the park.
The move was controversial at first and called "Jacob's Folly" after early improvements were washed away by rain in the Spring of 1889. In 1890 control over the park, then called Jacob's Park, was given to the Board of Park Commissioners. Frederick Law Olmsted was invited to tour the park, and gave an influential speech at the Pendennis Club
Pendennis Club
The Pendennis Club is a private club in Louisville, Kentucky. It was established in 1881 and modeled in part on English gentleman's clubs. It took its name from William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Pendennis . The first clubhouse, acquired in 1883, was a former Belknap family mansion. Soon after...
on May 20, 1891, and signed a contract to design the city's park system two days later. Work was soon underway on the park, by then renamed Iroquois, which Olmsted envisioned as "providing the grandeur of the forest depths in the dim seclusion of which you may wander musingly for hours".
See also
- Cherokee ParkCherokee ParkCherokee Park is a municipal park located in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It was designed, like 18 of Louisville's 123 public parks, by Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of landscape architecture...
- City of ParksCity of ParksCity of Parks is a municipal project to create a continuous paved pedestrian and biking trail around the city of Louisville, Kentucky while also adding a large amount of park land. The project was announced on February 22, 2005...
- Iroquois, LouisvilleIroquois, LouisvilleIroquois is a neighborhood on the south side of Louisville, Kentucky, USA. It is split into two parts by Beechmont. The neighborhood is roughly bounded by Hazelwood Avenue, Beechmont, Third Street, Kenwood Drive, and Iroquois Park. The largely residential neighborhood was developed as a suburb...
- Kenwood HillKenwood HillKenwood Hill is a neighborhood on the south side of Louisville, Kentucky, USA. Its boundaries are New Cut Road, Kenwood Drive, Southside Drive and Palatka Road. The hill, earlier known as Sunshine Hill and then Cox's Knob, was used by Native Americans to spot buffalo. By 1868 Benoni Figg owned the...
- Little LoomhouseLittle LoomhouseThe Little Loomhouse is a place on the National Register of Historic Places in the Kenwood Hill neighborhood on the south side of Louisville, Kentucky. It consists of three log cabins from the nineteenth century Victorian Era: Esta Cabin, Tophouse, and Wisteria Cabin. It not only displays weavings,...
- List of attractions and events in Louisville, Kentucky
- List of parks in Louisville, Kentucky
- Senning's ParkSenning's ParkSenning's Park was a park located across New Cut Road from Iroquois Park in Louisville, Kentucky, on the site of present-day Colonial Gardens. It was the site of the first zoo in Louisville, Kentucky's largest city.-Zoo days:...
- Shawnee ParkShawnee ParkShawnee Park is a municipal park in Louisville, Kentucky. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed 18 of the city's 123 public parks...
External links
- Iroquois Amphitheater
- Metro Parks - Iroquois Park
- Iroquois Park — The Cultural Landscape Foundation
- Satellite image of Iroquois Park
- http://digital.library.louisville.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISORESTMP=results.php&CISOVIEWTMP=item_viewer.php&CISOMODE=grid&CISOGRID=thumbnail,A,1;title,A,1;descri,200,0;none,200,0;none,A,0;20;title,none,none,none,none&CISOBIB=title,A,1,N;subjec,A,0,N;descri,200,0,N;none,A,0,N;none,A,0,N;20;title,none,none,none,none&CISOTHUMB=20%20(4x5);title,none,none,none,none&CISOTITLE=20;title,none,none,none,none&CISOHIERA=20;subjec,title,none,none,none&CISOSUPPRESS=0&CISOTYPE=link&CISOOP1=exact&CISOFIELD1=title&CISOBOX1=&CISOOP2=exact&CISOFIELD2=coveraa&CISOBOX2=Iroquois+Park+%28Louisville%2C+Ky.%29&CISOOP3=exact&CISOFIELD3=descri&CISOBOX3=&CISOOP4=exact&CISOFIELD4=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOBOX4=&c=exact&CISOROOT=all Images of Iroquois Park (Louisville, Ky.) in the University of Louisville Libraries Digital Collections]