East Park is a recreational

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

located in Mason City, Iowa, United States. It was listed as a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2014. At the time of its nomination it contained 21 resources, which included three

contributing buildings In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

, one contributing site, five structures, seven non-contributing buildings, and five non-contributing structures. It contains of land along the

Winnebago River The Winnebago River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 river in northern Iowa. It is a tributary of the Shell Rock River, part of the Cedar River watershed ...

. The park features picnic areas, a 9-hole

disc golf Disc golf, also known as frisbee golf, is a flying disc sport in which players throw a disc at a target; it is played using rules similar to golf. Most disc golf discs are made out of polypropylene plastic, otherwise known as polypropene, which ...

course, three

tennis court A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles matches. A variety of surfaces can be u ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

court,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

courts, fishing, a sledding hill, playgrounds including the Prairie Playground, a hard surface trail system, a

band shell In theater, a shell (also known as an acoustical shell, choral shell or bandshell) is a curved, hard surface designed to reflect sound towards an audience. Often shells are designed to be removable, either rolling away on wheels or lifting into ...

and a

gazebo A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal or turret-shaped, often built in a park, garden or spacious public area. Some are used on occasions as bandstands. Etymology The etymology given by Oxford Dictionaries (website), Oxford D ...

History

East Park was established in 1909 as the second recreational park in Mason City. Its original were designed by

Des Moines Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

landscape architect Frank E. Pease. He laid out the park's curvilinear street system (contributing structure), which emphasizes its landscape of flat prairie and rolling hills. Pease is also responsible for designing the park's water system (contributing structure), which includes Willow Creek and a duck pond created in a marshy area on the east side of the park. In 1937 the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

(WPA) added concrete edges to Willow Creek and concrete spillways to control and contain the water during floods. The size of the park expanded over the years until it reached its current 57.6 acres in 1957. The East Park Band Shell (1924), which is individually listed on the National Register, is located near the center of the park. Other park amenities that contribute to the historic nature of the park include the two picnic shelters, Shelter #1 (WPA; 1937) and Shelter #4 (1965), tennis courts (WPA; 1937), a stone footbridge (WPA; c. 1937), and the Parks Department maintenance building (1956). The tennis courts were part of Pease's original plan but were not added until later. There is also a

Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway The Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway (M&StL) was an American Class I railroad that built and operated lines radiating south and west from Minneapolis, Minnesota for 90 years from 1870 to 1960. The railway never reached St. Louis (despite its n ...

steam engine (1912) that was placed in the park near the railroad tracks in 1957. The non-contributing resources are park amenities that were built, or significantly altered, between 1970 and about 2000.

References

{{NRHP in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa 1909 establishments in Iowa Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Mason City, Iowa Historic districts in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa Protected areas of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa Works Progress Administration in Iowa Rustic architecture in Iowa