Parks

Website links for each park

Lafayette Park: https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/parks/parks/browse-parks/view-park.cfm?parkID=52&parkName=Lafayette%20Park

Forest Park: https://www.forestparkforever.org/

Gateway Arch: https://www.gatewayarch.com/

Parks

National and Local Parks in this Area

Amenities in Gateway Arch National Park

Visitor Center, Arch Store, Arch Cafe

Amenities in Forest Park

Visitor and Education Center, Forest Park Explorer bus service, Restrooms

Amenities in Lafayette Park

Kern Pavillion, Lafayette Park Playground, Lafayette Park House

Features in Gateway Arch National Park

Gateway Arch, Old Courthouse, Grand Staircase

Features in Forest Park

Round Lake, Deer Lake, Fish Hatchery

Features in Lafayette Park

Revolutionary War Cannons, Thomas Hart Benton Statue, Lafayette Park Lake

Locatoin of Gateway Arch National Park

Fourth Street between Market and Chestnut streets St. Louis, MO 63102

Location of Forest Park

5595 Grand Drive in Forest Park St. Louis, MO 63112

Location of Lafayette Park

Bounded by Jefferson Avenue, Lafayette Avenue, Park Avenue, and Mississippi Avenue

History

The property for the Gateway Arch was designated in 1935 as a National Park. The design competition started in 1948 and construction of the arch began in 1963. Construction was completed in 1965. It was created to document St. Louis’s role in the westward expansion.

Forest Park officially opened to the public in 1876 and still is one of the largest urban parks in the United States. It was created because the Missouri legislature passed an ordinance to establish three parks in the county in 1874. Most of the land was originally virgin forest, which is where the park received its name.

Lafayette Park was set aside in 1936 and dedicated in 1851 as the first public park in the city of St. Louis. Many historians believe this is the oldest urban park west of the Mississippi. The cannons were added to the park in 1897. They are from a British ship that went aground after entering Charleston Harbor in 1776. American ships quickly attacked and sunk it. The cannons from it were later retrieved and sold.

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