A huge crowd enjoyed a new section of Waterfront Park along the Ohio River on Wednesday night at a free WFPK concert. Credit: Christine Rigel.

Think parks are a luxury? Or that they only benefit those people who use them? In Louisville, going back at least 125 years, there’s been a recognition of that parks are an important community asset, and a worthy shared endeavor.

The Courier-Journal op-ed page was devoted to this topic today and I’ve assembled the links, below. This all comes in contrast to a recent low rating of Louisville’s park system that will likely rise as new parks open in eastern Jefferson County, and the Louisville Loop is put in place. Still, it’s worthwhile to take a look back at the start of the city’s commitment to parks.

Battle lines were apparently drawn as they often are now — along class lines. And one of the big issues was summer heat — recall that back then, there was no air conditioning.

Steve Wiser, an architect and historian, sketches out the issue in this piece, including tying parks to economic growth. It’s an early example of why protection of the environment can be viewed as a pro-growth policy, and not simply as a cost.

A Henry Watterson editorial, found here, from 1887 gives the distinct impression Louisville was behind other cities in establishing parks — and makes a strong case for developing the park system we now enjoy:

The condition of our laboring people during the hot summer months calls for our most serious attention. Those who live in the sections of the city where pleasure grounds surround large dwelling houses, or walk the streets shaded by the trees and cooled by watered lawns, do not appreciate the wretchedness which is for those who are shut off from even those breathing places. The rapid increase of the death rate when summer heat comes on usually awakens our citizens to the necessity for action, and river excursions are arranged for the women and children. These excursions have been of untold benefit to our people, but they are not adequate; they do not meet the emergency.

And here is a news article from 1887 on the city parks issue, including more explaining why parks were essential for public health, and the issue of heat:

Public parks for the recreation, health, and benefit of the public and free to all forever are recognized as imperative necessities wherever large bodies of people have come together for permanent residence. It has been the common assertion heretofore when this question has been discussed here that we do not need parks because our streets are so broad and the grounds surrounding our handsome residences are so ample and beautiful. But nothing can be more misleading than assertions of this kind. It is true that the streets of Louisville are generally broad but are they more so than those cities like Buffalo, Cleveland, Toledo, Chicago, and many others, where public parks have been established? It is true that we can point to many private residences possibly a larger proportion than can be found in any other large city whose grounds are ample and beautiful.

But, the largest part of our population have no such advantages and live from year to year in small dwellings or rooms oppressed throughout the long summer months by excessive heat, from which they cannot escape.

From the wide streets powdered limestone is blown in clouds through every window or door that may be open to admit the breeze. The hot pavements and unwholesome gutters are the children’s playgrounds, while hundreds perish every year for lack of pure air and wholesome recreation. When the hot days of June and the oppressive nights of July and August produce the usual exodus of the wealthy, and those who can afford to travel to the lakes or the mountains, there yet remain one hundred and fifty thousand men, women, and children who toil on and suffer under conditions from which there is no respite. For the working people and for all the people who must reside within the confines of the city from year to year, because they cannot afford to go away, public parks are imperatively needed and must be provided