Tower Grove Park - St. Louis, Missouri - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

The following is an excerpt from Missouri: A Guide to the 'Show Me' State, 1941 in the "St. Louis Points of Interest" section:

Kingshighway to Grand Blvd., Arsenal St. to Magnolia Ave., is noted for the variety of the trees and the beauty and diversity of its water lilies.  At various points along the central drive are the bronze statues of Shakespeare, Alexander von Humboldt and Columbus, all executed by Baron Ferdinand von Mueller of Munich, Germany, and given to the city by Henry Shaw.  Around the bandstand are marble busts of Mozart, Rossini, Wagner, Beethoven, Gounod and Verdi, also the gift of Henry Shaw.  Northeast of the Shakespeare statue are the lily ponds.

The park was originally part of the country estate of Henry Shaw(1800-1889), an Englishman who came to St. Louis in 1819.  In 1840, he retired, having amassed a comfortable fortune from his cutlery business and real estate operations.  After a period of travel and study Shaw developed a plan for a botanical garden, which he carried out with the assistance of Dr. George Engelmann, distinguished St. Louis physician and botanist, and of interested friends in England and Germany.  About 1866 Shaw decided to create a great park. He subsequently offered the city a gift of 190 acres and a 99-year lease on an additional 200 feet around this tract, on the condition that the city would devote $360,000 to improving the area as a public park..... His offer was accepted by the city and the park was named for Shaw's country home called Tower Grove by Shaw because a grove of sassafras trees stood near by.  More than 20,000 trees, many of them rare species, and all of them grown in the garden's arboretum, have been planted in the park.

Tower Grove Park was a gift to the City of St. Louis from Henry Shaw, founder of the neighboring Missouri Botanical Gardens in 1868 and officially opened to the public in 1872. Henry Shaw was largely responsible for the design of the park. The gift of the park to the city was complicated because at that time the land park contained was outside the city limits and required an act of the state legislature to create. The 289 acre park has many of the features which are found in other parks such as ball fields etc however Tower Grove has much more. The park features many early 1870's pavilions, sculptures and other ornate features. Tower Grove Park was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1989 due to its national significance as the "largest and best preserved 19th-century Gardenesque style city park in the United States." The park is well maintained and continues to be owned by the City of St. Louis and governed by a special Board of Commissioners appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court.

 For more information see the Tower Grove Park website.