Forest Park has topped the charts as one of the nation’s best urban parks for years, even surpassing New York’s Central Park and Chicago’s Lincoln Park. Packed full of amenities and cultural institutions, Forest Park features historic landmarks that go back to the 1904 World’s Fair, such as the Grand Basin at the foot of Art Hill and Cypress Swamp in the St. Louis Zoo.
This year, the park reached a new milestone and reason for celebration: 150 years of nature conservation, recreation and serving as a convening space for the community. To commemorate the sesquicentennial, the Missouri History Museum curated the exhibit “Forever Yours: Forest Park at 150,” which will remain open until May 31, 2027.
Amanda Clark, public historian at the Missouri Historical Society and curator of “Forever Yours,” told St. Louis on the Air that Forest Park plays a key role in the history of St. Louis.
“[Forest Park] has changed alongside us. It's not the same park that they opened in 1876,” Clark said. “It has adjusted to how we use parks and what we need parks to do for us in different ways.”
“Yours Forever” features information about Forest Park Highlands — an amusement park that operated from 1896 to 1963 — and the River Des Peres that has been hidden underground since the 1920s. There’s also attention paid to how everyday St. Louisans, including those in marginalized groups, utilized open greenspace to build relationships with each other.
“These open spaces gave spaces for different groups to evolve in their identity. It gave a place for them to gather,” Clark said. “And that's still true. In the southwestern corner of the park, [there are] a lot of family reunions with Black families. They have these big families in those picnic pavilions, which was something that was very important to include in the exhibit for us.”
Curation of “Yours Forever” was done with Forest Park Forever, the nonprofit arm of Forest Park that focuses on the current state and the future of the park. Anne Grossman, vice president of community initiatives, said the history of Forest Park shows the strength of community engagement in shaping the narrative of a city.
“Some of the key earlier community engagement would have been the Forest Park master plan from 1993 to 1995 where hundreds of public meetings took place to be able to hear from the community — what they'd like to see in Forest Park not only for that current time, but also into its future,” Grossman said. “[Forest Park Forever is] able to keep carrying that mantle forward. We want to be actively engaged with a community to hear what they desire, what may be keeping them from coming to the park [and] what would bring them to the park more.”
Most recently, basketball courts were finally included in Forest Park’s recreational offerings — thanks, in part, to community input. Soon after the courts, the park installed a nature playscape and “the Glades” project, which includes a renovation of the Steinberg Skating Rink.
Soon, Grossman added, there will be accessible paths that will traverse the hillside and connect at Children's Place and Kingshighway to take visitors down to Steinberg.
“Previously, there were crumbling stairs through that area. Those stairs are gone, and it's going to be a fully ADA-accessible path that will take you to the rooftop of the pavilion at Steinberg, as well as to the rink level that will be opening by the end of 2026,” she said. “There's also the Brickline with Great Rivers Greenway that will also enter in that east end of [Forest Park] and make safer egress that can separate [park visitors] from vehicle traffic.”
Central to the “Forever Yours” exhibit at the Missouri History Museum is a two-story mural that illustrates Forest Park and the service it has provided through the years.
“Photographic record does not reflect how every group has used [Forest Park]. If you just go off of photographs, it just looks like Victorians on boats, and you don’t get the full picture,” Clark said. “The fact that [the mural] has little personal moments, as well as big historic moments, reflects how the park is for all of us and how it's constantly changing but also staying the same.”
For more on Forest Park’s history and future, including reflections from callers on what Forest Park means to them, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
Related Event
What: “Yours Forever: Forest Park at 150” exhibit
When: Now through May 31, 2027
Where: Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63112
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Darrious Varner is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
