Charlotte, North Carolina is home to a 98-acre park known as Freedom Park. The park is located at 1900 East Boulevard, right in the middle of Charlotte’s historic Dilworth and Myers Park neighborhoods around a 7-acre lake and about 3 miles from the city’s central business district.
Trails, courts for tennis and volleyball, sporting grounds, and playground equipment may all be found in this park. A 2-8-0 steam engine can be found in the park, and while it is gated in and has safety bars installed over the tender, the cab is accessible. Back in the day, youngsters could freely jump on top of and under the train. At the time, two fire trucks were in service, each with a front-mounted handle crank. The kids were able to explore the insides of both fire vehicles and even play with the hoses in the back. A kid-friendly F-86 Sabre jet fighter and an army tank once stood there.
Throughout the summer, there are free movies and concerts at the park pavilion. Over 100,000 people attend the five-day Festival in the Park every September, and the Southeast Tourism Society has named it a Top 20 Event. The festival takes place in Freedom Park. The Charlotte Nature Museum is run by Discovery Place and is located next to Freedom Park, showcasing native Piedmont flora and animals.
The Mecklenburg County Lions Club used private funds to construct Freedom Park to honor war veterans after WWII ended. In 1949, the land was officially transferred to the City of Charlotte.
A $900,000 indoor shelter structure was opened in September 2005 thanks to a county bond issuance. The shelter comprises a concrete terrace, offices, a kitchen, a fireplace, a huge screen TV, and a commanding view of the lake. It’s a great place to host a community gathering or a modest sports event.
Freedom Park is now connected to uptown Charlotte to the north and Park Road Shopping Center to the south thanks to the Little Sugar Creek Greenway, which was officially completed in April of 2012 by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
The vast number of Canada geese who spend all year round in Freedom Park’s center lake is a popular attraction. While the geese may be cute to some, they are deemed a nuisance by the Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department because of their droppings on public grounds, damage to grass, and potential threat to small children. The geese always seemed to return despite the effectiveness of abatement methods.
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