SPRINGFIELD, MO. — The Springfield-Greene County Park Board has closed a portion of historic Silver Springs Park due to flooding. The park remains open and the closed area is marked with rope. All scheduled activities at Timmons Hall are proceeding as planned.
Construction on repairs begins Wednesday, June 29, and is expected to take about two weeks. Please continue to stay out of the roped off area while repairs are underway.
Following several inches of spring rainfall, Parks staff found the area including park’s circular amphitheater, a picnic shelter and some playground equipment to be holding water. The saturated area was about 130 feet across.
The source is suspected to be the park’s namesake, a natural spring that is contained in an underground cistern at the center of the amphitheater. The spring normally drains, via a 300-foot pipe, before it surfaces into Jordan Creek, the park's visible waterway.
Miles Park, Assistant Director of Parks over Operations, said the century-old clay tile pipe connecting the cistern to the creek collapsed, causing water to surface in the park.
Silver Springs Park is one of Springfield’s 10 historic parks, each dating to before World War II. Silver Springs was established in 1918 on land known as the old Fairbanks pasture, and later named for a spring on site, flowing into Jordan Creek. During segregation, Silver Springs was the city’s only public park designated for Black residents and sports leagues, including semi-pro baseball. In the 1930s, the WPA built the stone retaining walls and the first Silver Springs Pool, and lined the creek channel with rock. Silver Springs Park is the site of the annual Park Day Reunion, celebrated with a parade, a beauty pageant, concerts and a picnic on the first weekend in August. The park is also home to Timmons Hall, a portion of the Jordan Creek Greenway, and is a stop on the Springfield-Greene County African-American Heritage Trail.
For media inquiries, contact Jenny Fillmer Edwards, Public Information Administrator for the Springfield-Greene County Park Board, at 417-224-5510.
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