Holliday Park is 94 acres of perfection along the White River, between Meridian and Spring Mill, near 64th Street. Did you know? Me neither, not until Cap and I moved last month to the northside and looked for a park for our daily nature walks.
We found 3.5 miles of winding trails and a community of fellow walkers – hello again, Sid and Kathy – and a metaphor for Indianapolis: An overlooked gem that tells a story of failure and success, built with philanthropy, love and hard work.
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Indianapolis News founder John Holliday donated the land in 1916. Along with the trails and Nature Center – an interactive, 13,000-square-foot museum of natural history – the centerpiece of Holliday Park is The Ruins, three hauntingly beautiful slabs of concrete in the heart of the park. Called “Races of Man,” the 8-ton sculptures were carved from Indiana limestone in 1898 for one of Manhattan’s tallest skyscrapers of the day, the 26-story St. Paul Building, where they overlooked Broadway Street until the building’s demolition in 1958.
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Holliday Park received the sculptures over requests from MIT and the United Nations, but they went unused for years until Mayor Lugar goosed the project. “The Ruins” were dedicated in 1973, but crime and neglect left the sculptures overgrown by weeds and behind chain-link fencing for 20 years until they were reopened in 2016 after a $3.2 million philanthropic campaign.
The Ruins, with its reflecting pool, benches and shade trees, is just one visually stunning spot in a park full of them, maintained by philanthropy from a Who’s Who of city leaders, names you know: Tony George and Andy Mohr, Clowes and Efroymson, and Lilly.
Holliday Park is beautiful and hidden, created and sustained by generosity, sparked by Mayor Lugar and visited daily by a group of guests notable for their diversity of background and kindness of spirit. Holliday Park isn’t just in Indianapolis.
It is Indianapolis.
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