Stead Park is a 1.5-acre (0.61 ha)

municipal 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 re ...

located in the

Dupont Circle Dupont Circle (or DuPont Circle) is a traffic circle, park, neighborhood and historic district in Northwest Washington, D.C. The Dupont Circle neighborhood is bounded approximately by 16th Street NW to the east, 22nd Street NW ...

neighborhood of

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Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Among its facilities are Stead Recreation Center, located at 1625 P Street NW; a lighted

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court; an athletic field with a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

diamond; and a

playground A playground, playpark, or play area is a place designed to provide an environment for children that facilitates play, typically outdoors. While a playground is usually designed for children, some are designed for other age groups, or people ...

. Public events such as Summer Movie Mania, an outdoor screening sponsored by the city's government, are held at the park. Stead Park is also used as a practice field by the

Washington Renegades RFC The Washington Renegades are a Division III and Division IV rugby union club based in Washington D.C. Established on October 24, 1998, by Mark Hertzog. In October 1999, the club played its first 15s match against the Roanoke Rugby Football Club. ...

, the first

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club in the

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to recruit

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men and men of color. The park and its small staff are administered by the city's Department of Parks and Recreation. Stead Park, whose property was valued at $8,659,560 in 2009, is partially funded by a private trust created by Washington architect Robert Stead (1846-1943). The park is named for Stead's wife, Mary Force Stead.

History

The portion of the park next to P Street once held 19th-century

row houses In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...

. One of them, an 1878 house at 1625 P Street, was built by Henry Hurt, a

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veteran and president of the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company. (

Archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

work during a 2008 renovation uncovered artifacts and brick

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from that house and another at 1613 P Street.) In 1951, work began on Stead Park, an explicitly unsegregated recreational facility. The single-story fuel sheds from the row houses at 1621, 1623, and 1625 P Street were consolidated, expanded, and topped with a second story; this structure became the park's recreation center. The park was eventually completed at a cost of $80,000 ($ today), and formally opened on November 13, 1953. In 2003, plans for a four-story, multimillion-dollar

community center Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole co ...

to be built on a small section of the aging park sparked a dispute among Dupont Circle residents and the Washington D.C. Center for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender People. The plans were ultimately abandoned. In 2008, the recreation center and playground were renovated. Work began in April and the park reopened on December 15.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Stead Park
Friends of Stead Park2008 archaeological survey at Stead Park
1953 establishments in Washington, D.C. Archaeological sites in Washington, D.C. Dupont Circle Parks in Washington, D.C. Protected areas established in 1953