Woodward Park (Tulsa)

Description

Woodward Park is a 45acre public park, botanical garden, and arboretum located between 21st Street and 24th Street east of South Peoria Avenue and west of South Rockford Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the Midwestern United States. Initially, the park, named for Helen Woodward, the original property owner, was established in 1929, after a lengthy court suit over ownership.The park was designed to provide its visitors experience with a variety of horticultural subjects. It contains a number of specialty gardens, including those featuring spring flowers, tropical plants and cacti, the Tulsa Rose Garden, the Tulsa Garden Center, and the Tulsa Arboretum. The park is particularly known for its azaleas, as well as tulips, irises, dogwoods, and redbuds. The Rose Garden (established 1935) features over 9,000 roses of over 250 varieties.The park was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 11, 2014 as Woodward Park and Gardens Historic District. Its areas of significance are listed as: Landscape Architecture, Architecture, and Education/Recreation.HistoryThe city of Tulsa purchased a 45acre tract of land in 1909 for $100 an acre from Herbert Woodward. This area, then outside the city limits, called "Perryman's pasture," was part of a 160-acre allotment that Helen Woodward, a mixed-blood Creek Indian, had received from the Five Civilized Tribes Indian Commission. Her mother was a full-blood Creek and belonged to the Lochapoka tribe. She was 14 years old, under legal age, when her white father and guardian, Herbert Woodward, sold the land without her consent. Tulsa had condemned the site with the intent of creating a public park. In 1925, Helen, then known as Helen Slemp, sued Tulsa, trying to recover ownership of the land. The suit lasted for four years before the court decided in favor of the city. According to the Tulsa World, "The opinion ended one of the hardest fought land suits in the history of the city and decided a question which has been before Oklahoma courts for years. The principal question involved was the right of the city to condemn for public purposes land lying" outside the city limits.