Pease Park (officially Pease District Park) is an

urban park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to resi ...

in central

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

. Paralleling Shoal Creek west of

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

, the park is frequented by

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

and Long-View Micro School students and, formerly, by

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 ...

enthusiasts. Every spring it plays host to the annual

Eeyore's Birthday Party Eeyore's Birthday Party is a day-long festival taking place annually in Austin, Texas since 1963. It typically occurs on the last Saturday of April in Austin's Pease District Park.Sexton, ScottEeyore's Birthday Party. Retrieved March 4, 2006. It ...

celebration, a favorite event for Austin's

hippie subculture A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

dating back to the 1960s.

History

The parcel of land that is now Pease Park was named after and donated to the city of Austin by Texas Governor

Elisha M. Pease Elisha Marshall Pease (January 3, 1812 – August 26, 1883) was a Texas politician. He served as the fifth and 13th governor of Texas. Texas Republic A native of Enfield, Connecticut, Pease moved to Mexican Texas in 1835. He soon became active ...

and his wife in 1875. The land remained undeveloped until the city and civic organizations cooperated to beautify the park in 1926, building entrance gates, restrooms, and other amenities. Further improvements were made later, including the installation of a group of long concrete

picnic tables A picnic table (or picnic bench) is a table with benches (often attached), designed for working with and for outdoor dining. The term is often specifically associated with rectangular tables having an A-frame structure. Such tables may be referr ...

by the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

in the 1930s and the construction of a hike-and-bike trail connecting the park to the city's larger trail network in the 1950s. On October 16, 2019 ground broke on the US$15 million dollar 10 acres Kingsbury Commons, the most significant upgrade to Pease Park in a century, as part of a larger Master Plan. Construction concluded in June 2021.

Eeyore's Birthday Party

Since 1974 Pease Park has hosted Austin's annual

event, with music, costumes, games and

drum circle A drum circle is any group of people playing (usually) hand-drums and percussion in a circle. They are distinct from a drumming group or troupe in that the drum circle is an end in itself rather than preparation for a performance. They can range ...

s. The event is typically attended by thousands, filling the park with activities.

Disc golf course

Pease Park was the site of a popular disc golf course running along Shoal Creek. On January 1, 2011, the park's disc golf course was closed indefinitely due to

environmental impact Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on t ...

problems.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Pease Park
Park Profile
at Austin Parks Foundation

(with map of the course)
Pease Park on Centxdglove.com
(with pictures of each hole) Parks in Austin, Texas Urban public parks