“Clinton Park was part of the original plat of Lawrence, Kansas. The park has changed greatly since 1854. One major change was the large ravine that once stretched toward the river and into Old West Lawrence. Around 1913, the first fill was added to sections of the ravine, and today the only remaining portion of the ravine is in Clinton Park.

Clinton Park

In 1938, the city council approved a project not to exceed $140,000 that would include construction of several “oven,” a shelter house, two toilets, and a retaining wall. The fine retaining wall exists today.

This project, completed by January of 1940, was accomplished with National Youth Administration labor and included Pinckney neighbors.

Many generations of neighborhood children such as young langston Hughes have played in Clinton Park. residents remember exploring a “forbidden tunnel,” a drainage culvert that ran underground for several blocks, and also recall the unusual tractor seat merry-go-round that still existed in the early 1980s.

Clinton Park is a little neighborhood jewel that can still enchant even the oldest of children, as one can discover when walking on a snowy evening along the old stone wall by lamplight.”

-from a sign in Clinton Park