Gage Park is a city park of in

Topeka, Kansas Topeka ( ; Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central U ...

, United States. It was established in 1899 and is one of the largest parks in Topeka. It features the

Topeka Zoo The Topeka Zoo (formally the Topeka Zoological Park) is a medium-sized zoo in Topeka, Kansas in the United States. It is located within Gage Park, just off I-70 in the north central portion of the city. Despite its size, it houses over 250 anima ...

, the

Kansas Children's Discovery Center The Kansas Children's Discovery Center is a nonprofit children's museum for children and families to explore and discover science, art, engineering, and nature together. The Discovery Center is located in Topeka's treasured Gage Park at 4400 SW ...

, a miniature train of gauge, the Helen Hocker Theater, the Blaisdell family aquatic center, and the Reinisch Rose Garden. The 70-year-old rose garden is a popular place for weddings and events, and also a place where serious horticultural work is done.

History

Gage Park was established in 1899 when the heirs of Guilford Gage donated their farm to the city of Topeka as a recreational center.

George Kessler George Edward Kessler (July 16, 1862 – March 20, 1923) was an American pioneer city planner and landscape architect. Over the course of his forty-one year career, George E. Kessler completed over 200 projects and prepared plans for 26 comm ...

prepared the first plan between 1899 and 1901, city horticulturist Anton Reinisch continuing the work. The zoo and Doran Rock Garden were both constructed in the 1930s. Animaland followed in 1960 – a playground with concrete animals for climbing.

Fred Phelps Fred Waldron Phelps Sr. (November 13, 1929 – March 19, 2014) was an American minister who served as the pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, worked as a civil rights attorney, and ran for statewide election in Kansas. He gained nation ...

and the

Westboro Baptist Church The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is a small American, unaffiliated Primitive Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas, founded in 1955 by pastor Fred Phelps. Labeled a hate group, WBC is known for engaging in homophobic and anti-American pickets, ...

began their anti-gay crusade in 1991 with what they called "The Great Gage Park Decency Drive", seeking a crack down on homosexuals allegedly

cruising for sex Cruising for sex, or cruising, is walking or driving about a locality, called a cruising ground, in search of a sex partner, usually of the anonymous, casual, one-time variety. Published: 11-14-2007 Published: 9-21-2005 Article from NYT about ...

in the park. At the time, the church circulated a flyer, "Gage Park Sodomite Rats Nest".

In popular culture

Gage Park was featured in the beginning of the 1997 Stephen King novel '' The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass'', with Reinisch garden, the zoo, and the train being mentioned. In the book, the city of Topeka is deserted due to the influenza of King's novel ''

The Stand ''The Stand'' is a post-apocalyptic dark fantasy novel written by American author Stephen King and first published in 1978 by Doubleday. The plot centers on a deadly pandemic of weaponized influenza and its aftermath, in which the few survivin ...

''.

"But in your time, Charlie-boy, you pulled your share of kids, right? Around and around Gage Park you went, and the kids laughed, except some of them weren't really laughing; some of them, the ones who were wise to you, were screaming."

References

{{reflist

External links

Rose Garden History
Geography of Topeka, Kansas Parks in Kansas Tourist attractions in Topeka, Kansas Protected areas of Shawnee County, Kansas Protected areas established in 1899 1899 establishments in Kansas