Ohio—Cincinnati—History of Cincinnati Parks

The foundation of Cincinnati's park system is the 1907 plan for "A Park System for the City of Cincinnati" by landscape architect George Kessler (1862-1923) of Kansas City. In the new century Cincinnati took the step of forming the Board of Park Commissioners in 1906. By the next year they’d laid the foundation of today’s Cincinnati Parks with the 1907 plan, "A Park System for the City of Cincinnati," by George Kessler (1862-1923), a landscape architect and native of Germany. Kessler’s popular design for a pleasure park as a destination for a railroad company in Kansas had brought him other commissions, including Roland Park in Baltimore and Euclid Heights in Cleveland. After planning the layout of the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Kessler was very much in demand, particularly throughout the Midwest. When hired to develop a plan for a Cincinnati park system, Kessler stressed the importance of relieving congestion of crowded conditions and traffic in the city, and the need to secure land before it was developed. His plan promoted the use of hillsides to provide distant views and overlooks and to create desirable residential neighborhoods. Parks Department History Cincinnati Park History & Master Plan

 

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