Kiest Park is a park in southern

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

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 ...

, established in 1931 by Edwin John Kiest, publisher of the

Dallas Times Herald The ''Dallas Times Herald'', founded in 1888 by a merger of the ''Dallas Times'' and the ''Dallas Herald'', was once one of two major daily newspapers serving the Dallas, Texas (USA) area. It won three Pulitzer Prizes, all for photography, and t ...

and a member of the Dallas Park Board in the 1930s who donated the land for the park. Named in memory of Kiest's late wife, artist Elizabeth Patterson Kiest, it is the largest City of Dallas Park in

Oak Cliff Oak Cliff is a neighborhood of Dallas, Texas, that was formerly a separate town in Dallas County; Dallas annexed Oak Cliff in 1901. It has since retained a distinct neighborhood identity as one of Dallas' older established neighborhoods. Oak Cl ...

and features hike-and-bike trails, tennis courts, baseball diamonds, playgrounds, picnic tables and several

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 ...

-era structures, including stone gates at three entrances to the park, a stone picnic shelter and a stone field house. The WPA also built a formal garden at the heart of Kiest Park. A

pergola A pergola is most commonly an outdoor garden feature forming a shaded walkway, passageway, or sitting area of vertical posts or pillars that usually support cross-beams and a sturdy open lattice, often upon which woody vines are trained. The ...

was built at the head of the garden in 1934 with WPA funds but fell into ruin and was cleared away. The nonprofit organization Friends of Oak Cliff Parks restored the historic garden and the City of Dallas rebuilt the pergola in 2014 based on the original plans, using $2 million in bond funds. In 2017, the nonprofit Texas Recreation and Park Society named Kiest Park a Lone Star Legacy Park, which marks it as “a park that holds special prominence in the local community and the State of Texas.” The same year, the park became the site of Spanish artist Casto Solano's sculpture honoring Oak Cliff natives

Stevie Ray Vaughan Stephen Ray Vaughan (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. Although his mainstream career spanned only seven years, ...

and

Jimmie Vaughan Jimmie Vaughan (born March 20, 1951) is an American blues rock guitarist and singer based in Austin, Texas. He is the older brother of the late Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. Several notable blues guitarists have had a significant ...

.{{Cite news, url=https://www.dallasnews.com/news/dallas-city-hall/2016/05/25/city-council-gives-final-blessing-to-kiest-park-piece-honoring-jimmie-stevie-ray-vaughan, title=City Council gives final blessing to Kiest Park piece honoring Jimmie, Stevie Ray Vaughan, last=Wilonsky, first=Robert, date=May 25, 2016, access-date=June 1, 2017 The Vaughan family home was located at 2557 Glenfield Avenue, one-half mile away.

Boundaries and accessibility

The park is bounded by Perryton Dr to the north, Rugged Dr to the east, W Kiest Blvd to the south and S Hampton Rd to the west. It is connected by trail to Elmwood Parkway to the north, and plans exist to extend that trail to

Tyler/Vernon_station Tyler/Vernon station is a DART Light Rail station in Dallas, Texas. It is located at Tyler Street and Vernon Avenue in the Oak Cliff Oak Cliff is a neighborhood of Dallas, Texas, that was formerly a separate town in Dallas County; Dallas anne ...

through Elmwood, Dallas.

References

Parks in Dallas Parks in Oak Cliff