Memorial Park, a municipal park in Houston, Texas, is one of the largest urban parks in the United States. Opened in 1924, the park covers approximately 1,466 acres (6 km2) inside the 610 Loop, across from the neighborhood of Memorial. Memorial Drive runs through the park, heading east to downtown Houston and west to the 610 Loop. I-10 borders the park to the north.
The park includes the 18-hole Memorial Park Golf Course, Texas’s top-rated municipal golf course which opened in 1936. The park also has facilities for tennis, softball, swimming, track, croquet, volleyball, skating, and cycling. The park is very popular with Houston joggers, and is home to the Seymour Lieberman Exercise Trail, a 2.93 mile crushed granite pathway that sees almost 3 million visits annually.
In 1951, the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center was established, consumes a little over 150 acres of the western portion of the park, and offers 5 miles of walking trails, a Discovery Room, Reference Library, Gift Shop, and classrooms.
On the south side of Memorial Drive, there are miles of multi-use trails through the woods, a 'picnic' loop which is used heavily by road cyclists, softball fields, sand volleyball courts and a field for playing rugby or soccer.
Living next to a heavily wooded park has obvious benefits. Some risks also exist, especially with the current drought conditions. Here are some helpful hints for minimizing the risk of fire to your home prepared by the International Firechiefs Association: Fire Protection
Susi Knight will be leading a Rake Up and Remove project in Memorial Park on Saturday, October 29, at 9am. Residents interested in participating should contact her at (713) 494-0372 or susi2401@gmail.com.
