MacArthur onto Wabash and continue west past White Oaks Mall, then start looking for Bunker Hill on your right. Look for the Centennial Park sign on that corner, then take a right onto Bunker Hill and keep going until you see the next sign and the parking lot.
Lincoln Memorial Garden Six miles of trails take you through 100 acres of native woodland on Lake Springfield’s northwest shore at Lincoln Memorial Garden, designed in 1936 by the great Washington Park American landscape architect Jens Jensen and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. Each trail is dotted with benches etched with Lincoln quotes, and all plants derive from the three states in which Lincoln lived — Illinois, Kentucky and Indiana. The grove of sugar maples is always popular with visitors, especially when warm weather approaches.
Nearby are the garden’s Walnut Grove and Ostermeier Prairie Center, a former farm where once-cultivated fields were restored to native grasses and forbs. The garden is open daily, sunrise to sunset.
Special weekend events are held throughout the year, among them Art in the Garden, June 27; the Indian Summer Festival, Oct. 10 and 11; and the Holiday Market, Nov. 14 and 15. The park’s nature center and Split Rail Gift Shop, which offers crafts, books and posters, are open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 1-4 p.m. Sunday.
Lincoln Memorial Garden, 2301 E. Lake Drive, 217-529-1111. www.lmgnc.org. Take I-55 south to the Chatham/East Lake Drive interchange (exit 88), then head east (left) for two miles on East Lake Drive.
Lincoln Park Though smaller than Washington Park, Lincoln Park has more wide-open spaces for playing baseball and hurling Frisbees. There’s something for kids, mom and dad, even grandpa here, from an 18-hole disc-golf course to tennis courts and a horseshoe park. The Nelson Center, located at the northern edge of the park, showcases the city’s only spot with two ice rinks and a swimming pool — complete with a water slide. The park’s paths, shelters, playground and proximity to Oak Ridge Cemetery also appeal to visitors.
The historic lagoon just off the south entrance of Fifth Street was extensively renovated. A new water circulation system keeps contents fresh and filtered, pumping it from the low pool to the cascading water sluice, which returns it fresh and re-oxygenated to
the high pool. Lincoln Park, Fifth Street and Sangamon Avenue, 217-544-1751. www.springfieldparks.org.
Take Sixth Street north from downtown or Fifth Street south from the Illinois State Fairgrounds. From Oak Ridge, take Monument to North Grand (left), and North Grand to Sixth Street (left). For information on Nelson Center events, call 217- 753-2800.
Washington Park is Springfield’s largest. Its main attraction is the Thomas Rees Memorial Carillon, the world’s sixth-largest carillon.
A weeklong International Carillon Festival, May 31 through June 6, brings in artists from around the world and audiences from around the country.
Carillon concerts are held at noon and 3 p.m. on Sundays in April and May; at 3 p.m. on Sundays and 7 p.m. on Wednesdays June through August; and at noon and 3 p.m. on Sundays September through December.
Tours of the carillon are offered noon-dusk Wednesday through Sunday. Admission is $2.50 for adults and $2 for children.
The Washington Park Botanical Garden features a 9,000-square-foot greenhouse, conservatory, and gallery. A variety of gardens surrounds the conservatory, including a 5,000-plant rose garden, the largest of its kind in central Illinois; a scent-and-texture garden for the visually impaired; an iris garden; a perennial border; the Betty Mood Smith Rockery; and Roman-cultural and outdoor cactus gardens.
There are many activities open to the public, including the Rain Forest Festival, Feb. 21-March 15; the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular in October; and the Winter Holiday Display, Dec. 5-Dec. 27. Washington Park is also home to ponds, picnic shelters, playgrounds, tennis courts, nature trails and bike and jogging paths. The 350-foot boardwalk overlooking the lower lagoon is a popular gathering place for joggers, walkers and feeders of the park’s many ducks. Playmates of all ages will enjoy the extensively modernized playground, next to the tennis courts.
Washington Park, South Grand Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard, 217-544-1751. www.springfieldparks.org. Enter by South Grand Avenue on the south, Chatham Road on the west, Fayette Avenue on the north, or Orendorff Parkway on the east. The botanical garden is open noon-4 p.m. Monday through Friday and noon-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. See www.springfieldparks.org/garden.
