Fejervary Park is located in the west end of

Davenport, Iowa Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. Located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, it is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and a ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The park is dominated by rolling green grass hills and trees. It features play ground equipment and an aquatic center. The

Putnam Museum The Putnam Museum and Science Center, formerly Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences, is a museum of history and natural science and a science center in Davenport, Iowa, United States. The museum was founded in 1867, and was one of the first mus ...

is located just to the east of the park.

History

The property for Fejervary Park was given to the city by Celestine Fejérváry, a daughter of Nicholas Fejérváry. He was a Hungarian nobleman who came to Davenport as a refuge in 1853 following the failure of an insurrection in his native Hungary. The park was the site of Fejervary’s estate. He chose the location for his home because the steep bluffs with a view of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

reminded him of his home on the

Danube River The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

. The house, which was on the site at the time of the donation, is now gone. All that remains of the buildings is a carriage barn. The park land was acquired by the Davenport Board of Parks Commissioners as part of a city program to develop public parks throughout the city. Other parks in the program at the time included Vander Veer, Riverview Terrace, and

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. A municipal zoo was added to the park in 1909. It became known as Mother Goose Land. Patrons would enter the zoo through a large Mother Goose structure. There was also a feature called Monkey Island. The Mother Goose entryway was listed on the

Davenport Register of Historic Properties This is a list of the Davenport Register of Historic Properties in Davenport, Iowa, United States. The historic preservation movement began in the city of Davenport in the mid-1970s with the renovation of several historic structures. A comprehensi ...

in 2007, and the zoo itself closed in 2008.

References

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