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Location:13th; 14th;Locust; St. Charles

Ordinance Date:1857Size: 1.09 AcresGift: Ordinance20669; 26330

FountainPond2 Playgrounds

Statues:Stone turtleMargaret R. KincaidDrinking FountainStone benches bySculptress NancyCoonsman Hahn

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Downtown Now!Lucas Garden Park

With the development of Washington Avenue and the new lofts in

the area, Lucas Garden Park has a neighborhood again.

It has been a long time since the small park tucked behind thedowntown library was in a residential neighborhood.

Lucas Garden was the site of a brick house built by Judge Lucasin 1820 facing the present St. Charles Street or King's Road, as it

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was called. There is still a flowing spring in the Public Librarybasement that was the water supply for the Judge's home.

"Desirous of contributing to the ornament and health of the City ofSt. Louis and at the same time to establish a permanentmonument to the memory of his ancestor (father) the lateHonorable John B. C. Lucas, in the shape of a public squarebearing his name," reads the deed signed by James H. and MarieE. Lucas on March 24, 1857, giving the block of land immediatelynorth of the St. Louis Public Library to St. Louisians. The deed

states further that, "This conveyance is however made with theexpress condition, to wit: that said public square shall forever bemaintained as a public promenade for the inhabitants of the City ofSt. Louis."

On the same day in 1857 that he signed the deed on LucasGarden, James H. Lucas sold the block where the Public Librarynow stands to the city for the sum of $95,000.

In 1859, a board of improvement for the park was created and itsdevelopment started.

Its layout caused Locust Street to be closed at 13th and the parkwas given an asymmetrical plan with a bandstand near the foot ofLucas Place. Sale of the buildings at the southwest corner of thepark was authorized by Ordinance in 1872. From the time of thefirst appropriation in 1858 to 1877, $41,465 was spent on it.

The entire 6.25 acres was named Missouri Park and providedpopular downtown breathing space until the erection of the St.Louis Exposition and Music Hall in 1883. Licensed to a privatecorporation for a period of 50 years, the ground was restored touse as a park in 1907 and designs for the Italian Renaissanceinspired library building were drawn up by the famous architectCass Gilbert. The library was completed in 1912.

Locust Street was reopened behind the Library from 13th to 14thStreets and the present sunken garden with its fountain wasdeveloped.

Sculptress Nancy Coonsman Hahn's stone benches dot thelandscape.

The Downtown Children's center uses Lucas Park as part of itsplayground area. A turtle stands in the middle of their playarea...the work of artist Robert Cassilly, whose Turtle Playgroundis in Forest Park.

A coalition of residents, students, property and business owners,Downtown Now and the Downtown Partnership have formed theLucas Park Beautification Project to raise funds to renovate thepark.

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