Chickasaw Park

Chickasaw Park is a municipal park in Louisville, Kentucky's west end. It is fronted to the west by the Ohio River and by Southwestern Parkway to the east. It was formerly the country estate of political boss John Henry Whallen, and began development as a park in 1923, but was not completed until the 1930s. The original plan for Chickasaw Park was designed by the Frederick Law Olmsted firm and is part of the Olmsted Park System, but was a later addition, as Shawnee, Iroquois, and Cherokee Parks were designed in the 1880s by Frederick Law Olmsted himself.[1]

Chickasaw Park
Chickasaw Park's fishing pond
TypeMunicipal park
LocationLouisville, Kentucky
Coordinates38°14′32″N 85°49′54″W
Area61 acres (25 ha)
Created1923
Operated byMetro Parks

The City Parks Commission passed a resolution in 1924 making Chickasaw Park and a few other small parks black-only and making the larger parks in the city white-only. In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the NAACP aided three Louisville residents in suing the city over the inequalities between the white- and black-only parks in Louisville. The park was desegregated by Mayor Andrew Broaddus in 1955.[2]

The park features the city's only free clay tennis courts. Other features include a basketball court, a pond, a sprayground, two playgrounds, a lodge, and two picnic pavilions.[3] In 1969, Elmer Lucille Allen, a scientist and artist from the Chickasaw neighborhood organized the Chickasaw Little League. Because the Shawnee Little League was closed to children living south of Broadway, Allen organized an integrated Little League for her sons and area children. It was in operation for 3–4 years.[4]

2023 shooting

A shooting took place at the park in 2023, killing two and wounding four. No arrests have been made. The shooting occurred less than a week after a separate shooting at a bank, also in Louisville.[5]

References
  1. Fitzpatrick, Virginia (1982). Frederick Law Olmsted and the Louisville Park System. Indiana: Indiana University.
  2. Wright, George (1992). A History of Blacks in Kentucky, Volume II: In Pursuit of Equality, 1890-1980. Frankfort: The Kentucky Historical Society.
  3. "Chickasaw Park". Louisville Metro Government. Retrieved April 14, 2013.
  4. "90 Years of Elmer Lucille Allen". American Whiskey Magazine. 8 November 2021. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
  5. Czachor, Emily Mae (April 18, 2023). "2 dead, 4 wounded in mass shooting at crowded park in Louisville". CBS News. Retrieved April 16, 2023.


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