Silver Springs Park was established in 1918 on land known as the old Fairbanks pasture, according to the Springfield-Greene County Park Board, and was later named for a spring on the site, which flowed into Jordan Creek.
During a time of segregation, it was the only public park designated for Springfield’s Black residents and sports leagues, including semi-pro baseball.
"This was the only park where African Americans, Black folks, could socialize, could be a part of this community," said Wes Pratt, who is with the Neighborhood Coalition Group, which started the project.
Pratt lived nearby when he was young and grew up at the park – spending his days from dusk to dawn there as a child.
It was an active park at one time, he said, with supervised activities for young people.
"People would gather for all types of family events, receptions, picnics, there was such a sense of community," said Pratt.
Pratt remembers beautiful willow trees along the creek and how sad he felt when somewhere in the park's past, someone — perhaps city leaders — made the decision to remove them.
He said he’s excited to see the improvements made to the pavilion and the surrounding area but equally excited to share the history of Silver Springs Park.
John Oke-Thomas, owner and founder of Oke-Thomas + Associates, said improvements will include a new amphitheater to the south of the pavilion, which will allow seating for things like evening shows and movies. The pavilion will maintain its historic structure while being modernized. And there will be a place just outside the structure for socializing.
Oke-Thomas said the project will be aimed at strengthening families.
"The creation of what we are trying to do is to extend what we call the life of a family, how do we make that family whole?" he said. "And we need to continue to do that, not just for us, but for our children so that at the end of the day the children can benefit and have all of the necessary aspirations, all of the life givens, so that they can become well-rounded citizens."
Oke-Thomas told Pratt he plans to plant willow trees along the creek.
Construction will start soon, and completion is expected in early summer 2025.
The planned improvements are funded by $1.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds distributed by the Greene County Commission.
Oke-Thomas said this is just the start of projects to improve Silver Springs Park.
Springfield Councilwoman Monica Horton is sponsoring a bill that will go before council as a whole soon. It would provide around $20,000 in Zone 1 Minor Neighborhood Improvement funds for landscaping and signage at the park.
And Christine Peoples, Timmons Hall coordinator for the Springfield-Greene County Park Board, said they hope to restore the park's existing Works Progress Administration-era amphitheater. She said the planned improvements take into the consideration of the future but also "the bones of our past."
She praised the elders of Springfield's Black community who made the park beautiful during a time of segregation and said, "nobody could have laid a foundation better than our elders and the community before us."
Silver Springs Park is the site of the annual Park Day Reunion, which is celebrated with a parade, a beauty pageant, concerts and a barbecue picnic on the first weekend in August. The park is part of the Springfield-Greene County African American Heritage Trail.
Peoples sees Silver Springs Park as a place that will continue to bring the community together.
"That is the legacy that I want to keep going in this park," she said, "that we never fail to come together, no matter our differences or ideas."
