View source for Liberty Park (Spokane, Washington)

{{Short description|Park in Spokane County, Washington, United States of America}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{Infobox park
| name = Liberty Park
| image = Liberty Park View.png
| image_size = 240px
| image_alt =
| image_caption = Basketball courts and pavilions at Liberty Park
| map = <!-- or | map_image = -->
| map_width =
| type = [[Urban Park]]
| location = [[Spokane, Washington]]
| nearest_city =
| coordinates = {{Coord|47|39|09|N|117|23|26|W}}
| area = {{convert|22|acre|ha}}
| created =
| operator = Spokane Parks and Recreation Department
| visitation_num =
| status = Open year round (daily 6 a.m. to 10&nbsp;pm)
| designation =
| publictransit = [[Spokane Transit Authority]]
| established = {{Start date and age|1897}}
}}
'''Liberty Park''' is a {{convert|22|acre|ha}} public park at Third Ave and Perry St in [[East Central, Spokane|East Central]], [[Spokane, Washington]]. It is open daily with entry ''gratis''.
Designed by [[Kirtland Cutter]] and adapted by the [[Olmsted Brothers]], the park was once considered one of the finest in Spokane and the wider region, but was dramatically reshaped and transformed when [[Interstate 90 in Washington|Interstate 90]] was built through the park in the 1960s. The interchange connecting I-90 with [[Washington State Route 290]] was built on the land that formerly contained the bulk of the park. Ruins of the former park are visible to drivers as they pass through the interchange, with the contemporary park located on the opposite side of the freeway.
To counter the loss of land taken by the freeway, the park was expanded eastward from its original location. In addition to traditional park features like grass lawns, sports facilities and play equipment, Liberty Park is home to a branch of the Spokane Public Library and an aquatic center.
==History==
[[File:Liberty Park Postcard View.jpg|thumb|left|Liberty Park in the 1910s]]
The land that became Liberty Park was gifted to the city of Spokane by wealthy local industrialist [[Disappearance of F. Lewis Clark|F. Lewis Clark]] in 1897<ref name="BrandDoc">{{cite news |last1=Brand |first1=Nathan |title=Kiss of Death: The Rise and Fall of Liberty Park |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQfTvGBSkJ4 |access-date=September 2, 2022 |work=The Inlander |date=March 27, 2013 |format=Video}}</ref> and its name was chosen a year later by a vote of residents of the neighboring Liberty Place Addition.<ref name="Preservation">{{cite web |title=Liberty Park and Ruins |url=https://www.historicspokane.org/HeritageTours/east_central/liberty_park.html |website=historicspokane.org |publisher=City – County of Spokane Historic Preservation Office |access-date=September 2, 2022}}</ref> The original park stretched from Third Ave. in the north to Fifth Ave. in the south and Arthur St. in the west to Perry St. in the east and was home to a country club for wealthy members.<ref name="KREM">{{cite news |last1=Brand |first1=Nathan |title=Hidden Spokane: An abandoned wonder within Liberty Park |url=https://www.krem.com/article/entertainment/places/hidden-spokane/hidden-spokane-an-abandoned-wonder-within-liberty-park/293-123269388 |access-date=September 2, 2022 |work=KREM-TV |date=August 7, 2015}}</ref> The surrounding neighborhood was developed in the 1890s as well as a [[streetcar suburb]] for working class people.<ref name="LibraryVid">{{cite web |title=The History of Liberty Park |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90BOiMZKRJ0 |website=youtube.com |publisher=Spokane Public Library |access-date=September 2, 2022}}</ref> The wealthy members and the working class residents did not get along well, and the country club was soon moved to another of Spokane's grand early parks, [[Manito Park and Botanical Gardens|Manito Park]].<ref name="KREM"/>
During the first three years of the park's existence, the city spent $6,000 on road-grading and irrigation projects.<ref name="Preservation"/> Famed [[Pacific Northwest]] architect [[Kirtland Cutter]] drew up the park's original design plans. In 1908, renowned landscape architects the [[Olmsted Brothers]] drew up new design plans for the park, which included adding a stone [[pergola]] on the high ground overlooking a lake and the rest of the park grounds.<ref name="LibraryVid"/> The ruins of that pergola are now located outside of the park, on the other side of I-90, and are sometimes referred to as "Spokane's [[Stonehenge]]."<ref name="BrandDoc"/> Work on the Olmsted Brothers' plan was completed in 1913. The brothers said of Liberty Park at the time that it was "so much broken into hills and valleys with abrupt slopes and prominent projecting ledges that it is capable of uncommonly picturesque landscape gardening development."<ref name="LibraryVid" />
Another part of the Olmsted Brothers' plan was to draw children to the park, which made Liberty Park the site of Spokane's first public playground. Other play equipment such as swing sets and wading pools were constructed as well. In 1908, another way the park attempted to draw children was by hiring a "competent and reliable woman" to look after children who were left at the park by the mothers on their way into downtown for shopping. A public pool, one of the city's first, opened in Liberty Park in 1920.<ref name="BrandDoc" />
[[File:Old Liberty Park View.png|thumb|View of the old park showing the crater, former lake and intrusion of the highways. The ruins of the pergola are just beyond the overpasses.]]
According to Tracy Rebstock with the Washington State Archives, the park's fortunes began to decline around the start of the [[Great Depression]]. In 1937, a group of striking workers stole a delivery truck and pushed it off the cliff into the lake below. Maintenance work on the lake had been stopped in the years prior, and the lake had turned into an overgrown swamp. By 1949, a decision was made to fill in the lake entirely with non-burnable waste.<ref name="BrandDoc" />
Liberty Park's fortunes took an even bigger blow in the 1950s as plans were being drawn up to bring an interstate highway through Spokane. Four routes were proposed, taking different routes through the city center, but all four divergent proposals converged at or immediately adjacent to Liberty Park. With the park already in decline, and a history of [[redlining]] in the surrounding East Central area that had made it one of the most diverse areas of Spokane. As was the case in cities around the region, those conditions made Liberty Park and East Central an obvious location to construct the interstate.<ref name="LibraryVid" /> Of the park's 21 acres, 18 were destroyed,<ref name="Rebstock">{{cite web |last1=Rebstock |first1=Tracy L. |title=Making Way for the Freeway: Liberty Park |url=https://spokanehistorical.org/items/show/114 |website=spokanehistorical.org |publisher=Eastern Washington University |access-date=September 2, 2022}}</ref> along with over 1,000 homes in East Central, to make way for the highway.<ref name="LibraryVid" />
The new Liberty Park was completed in 1973 with a smaller pond, baseball diamonds, a pavilion, tennis, basketball and horseshoe courts, along with restrooms. Lighting was also installed in an effort to reduce crime and vandalism.<ref name="Rebstock"/> A pool was later added to the new park, which was subsequently expanded into an aquatics center in 2010.<ref name="Nappi10">{{cite news |last1=Nappi |first1=Rebecca |title=Spokane dedicates Liberty Aquatic Center |url=https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/jun/09/spokane-dedicates-liberty-aquatic-center/ |access-date=September 2, 2022 |work=The Spokesman-Review |date=June 9, 2010}}</ref> In 2021, the Liberty Park Library, a branch of the Spokane Public Library, was opened in the park.<ref name="Robinson21">{{cite news |last1=Robinson |first1=Erin |title=New Liberty Park Library now open |url=https://www.kxly.com/new-liberty-park-library-now-open/ |access-date=September 2, 2022 |work=KXLY-TV |date=November 12, 2021}}</ref>
==Setting==
[[File:Liberty Overview.png|thumb|Liberty Park from above]]
Liberty Park is located in the East Central neighborhood of Spokane, about a mile-and-a-half east-southeast of the [[Downtown Spokane|city center]]. The original site of the park which stretched west from Perry St. four blocks to Arthur St.<ref name="Preservation" /> is now owned by the [[Washington State Department of Transportation]] and is crisscrossed by elevated overpasses of the interchange between Interstate 90 and Washington Route 290, with Interstate 90 itself cutting straight through the middle of the former parkland.<ref name="Quad"/> Ruins of the grand stone pergola which once overlooked the park from above at Third Ave. and Arthur St. is now cut off by the interstate from the current park.<ref name="BrandDoc" />
[[File:Spokane and Inland Empire Railroad 104. (1910) The South Hill frequency changing station is in background.jpg|thumb|left|Railroad and Frequency Changing Station above Liberty Park. Old Liberty Park was located just beyond the building, while new Liberty Park is on the side from the photo.]]
Old Liberty Park was also the site of a curious geological feature that for decades confounded geologists and residents alike. A crater with a 40-foot deep lake, sometimes also referred to as a pond, was located in the middle of the old park site. Early theories proposed that the crater was that of an extinct volcano. In 1957, a local resident proposed digging in the crater to find preserved [[mastodon]] bones. By the 1960s the prevailing theory on the crater's creation was that the [[Missoula floods]] at the end of the last [[Last Glacial Period|ice age]] forced the [[Spokane River]] to divert from its banks and flow over the cliff where Lincoln Park would eventually be developed. The action of the water flowing over the cliff face would have eroded the area into its crater-like shape. The lake was eventually filled and leveled off, though the crater remains and can be seen from Third Ave. immediately to the west of the current park.<ref name="BrandDoc" />
The Ben Burr Trail, for pedestrians and non-motorized vehicles, passes through the park and connects it to areas to the south in the [[Lincoln Heights, Spokane|Lincoln Heights]] neighborhood, and areas to the north and west such as [[Downtown Spokane]], the [[Gonzaga University]] campus in the [[Logan, Spokane|Logan]] neighborhood, and the [[Spokane River Centennial Trail]].<ref name="McDermott20">{{cite news |last1=McDermott |first1=Ted |title=Getting There: Effort underway to extend Ben Burr Trail to Iron Bridge, Moran Prairie |url=https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2020/oct/05/getting-there-effort-underway-to-extend-ben-burr-t/ |access-date=September 2, 2022 |work=The Spokesman-Review |date=October 5, 2020}}</ref> The Ben Burr Trail largely follows the route of the former [[Spokane and Inland Empire Railroad]], which formerly ran along the ridge atop the park's southern cliff. The [[National Register of Historic Places]] listed [[Frequency Changing Station]] is also perched atop the southern cliff along the route of the former railroad line.<ref name="Deshais19">{{cite news |last1=Deshais |first1=Nicholas |title=Getting There: The curious case of Benjamin Burr |url=https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/jan/07/getting-there-the-curious-case-of-benjamin-burr/ |access-date=September 2, 2022 |work=The Spokesman-Review |date=January 7, 2019}}</ref>
The park is located at the base of the slope of Spokane's South Hill, which rises over 100 feet as a sheer cliff along Liberty Park's southern edge. In the park's center is a [[basalt]] outcrop which also rises 100 feet to a flat-topped tableland.<ref name="Quad">{{cite web |title=Spokane NW Quadrangle |url=https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/ht-bin/tv_browse.pl?id=79e7aa611db2d7d2e3ec7b211014750b |website=usgs.gov |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey |access-date=September 2, 2022 |format=Topographic Map |date=2020}}</ref> These basalt rocks are part of the [[Columbia River Basalt Group]], flood basalts laid down millions of years ago.<ref>{{cite web |author1=Cascades Volcano Observatory |title=Columbia River Basalt Group Stretches from Oregon to Idaho |url=https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/cvo/columbia-river-basalt-group-stretches-oregon-idaho |website=usgs.gov |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey |access-date=September 2, 2022}}</ref> Almost all of the current iteration of the park is located east of the original park site,<ref name="Quad"/> which originally went only as far east as Perry St.<ref name="Preservation" />
==Amenities==
[[File:Liberty Park Library.png|thumb|Liberty Park Library]]
In addition to grass lawns with shade trees, Liberty Park features numerous recreational amenities. Athletic facilities in the park include multiple basketball courts, a lighted softball diamond and horseshoes pits. For children there is a play structure and swing set. There are two picnic shelters in the park in addition to numerous picnic tables scattered around the lawns.<ref name="Parks">{{cite web |title=Liberty Park |url=https://static.spokanecity.org/documents/parks/park-maps/liberty-park.pdf |website=spokanecity.org |publisher=City of Spokane |access-date=September 2, 2022}}</ref>
The Liberty Park pool was upgraded in 2010 and is now the Liberty Park Aquatic Center. The outdoor facility includes a playground in a zero-depth entry pool, two water slides, and a six-lane pool with a diving board.<ref>{{cite news |title=Liberty Aquatic Center |url=https://www.spokesman.com/guides/spokane-area-pools/stop-108/ |access-date=September 2, 2022 |work=The Spokesman-Review}}</ref>
Opened in 2021, the Liberty Park Library was built on the site of former tennis courts<ref name="Parks" /> in the park. A sustainable landscape known as the meadow is being grown around the library featuring pollinator-friendly plants that are not water or maintenance-intensive. The library is open seven days a week.<ref name="Library">{{cite web |title=Liberty Park – Spokane Public Library |url=https://www.spokanelibrary.org/liberty-park/ |website=spokanelibrary.org |publisher=Spokane Public Library |access-date=September 2, 2022}}</ref>
[[Spokane Transit Authority]]'s bus route 94 provides public transit service to the park seven days a week, running along the streets on the northern edge of the park.<ref>{{cite web |title=94 East Central/Millwood |url=https://gtfsbridge.spokanetransit.com/storage/files/94_2022-08-28.pdf |website=spokanetransit.com |publisher=Spokane Transit Authority |access-date=September 2, 2022}}</ref>
== See also ==
*[[Spokane, Washington#Parks and recreation|Spokane, Washington – Parks and recreation]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQfTvGBSkJ4 Inlander documentary on Liberty Park]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90BOiMZKRJ0 Spokane Public Library video on Liberty Park]
{{Spokane}}
[[Category:Parks in Spokane County, Washington]]
[[Category:Geography of Spokane, Washington]]