Wilson Park

 Wilson Park is located in the center of the city. It is bordered to the north and south by Prospect Street and Louise Street and to the east and west by Park Avenue and Wilson Avenue. With 22.75 acres, it is Fayetteville's first and oldest park.

Park History

As early as 1906, Wilson Park, Fayetteville's original City Park, was first owned, maintained and operated privately by civic-minded A.L. Trent. Each spring, Trent's Pond, now used as a softball field on the east side of the park, was used by local residents as the City's swimming hole, boating area and social gathering spot. Scull Creek, a unique feature of the park fed by a spring that surfaces from under the castle, flows south along the east boundary of Wilson Park under the swimming pool and exits at the west boundary of the park.

In the mid-1920s, a group of local businessmen - led by Dr. Noah Drake - purchased City Park from Mr. Trent. They formed the City Park Company which built the first permanent pool at the park as well as a tourist camp for the new and burgeoning automobile travel craze then sweeping the nation. This portion of the park was purchased by the City of Fayetteville in 1944.

In 1946, renowned local author Charles Morrow Wilson sold and donated approximately 17 acres of land west of the original park, known as Wilson's Pasture, to the City. Wilson stipulated that City Park, now the size we know it, be officially named Mattie Morrow Wilson Memorial Park, in honor of his mother. Today the park is called Wilson Park and is one of the City's most popular parks.