Goodale Park

{{Short description|Park in Columbus, Ohio, U.S.}} {{distinguish|Goodale State Park}} {{Use American English|date=July 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}} {{Infobox park | name = Goodale Park | image = Columbus, Ohio JJ 49.jpg | image_size = 300px | image_caption = | image_alt = | mapframe = yes | mapframe-zoom = 15 | mapframe-wikidata = yes | coordinates = {{Coord|region:US-OH|format=dms|display=inline,title}} | coords_ref = | type = Public | location = Columbus, Ohio | nearest_city = | area = {{convert|32.56|acre|sp=us}}<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.columbus.gov/recreationandparks/parks/Goodale-Park/| title=Facility: Goodale Park| publisher=Columbus Recreation & Parks Department| access-date=February 22, 2012| archive-date=April 24, 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200424124133/https://www.columbus.gov/recreationandparks/parks/Goodale-Park/| url-status=dead}}</ref> | elevation = {{convert|751|ft|sp=us}}<ref>{{cite gnis | id=1040948 | name=Goodale Park | access-date=February 22, 2012}}</ref> | created = | designer = | etymology = | administrator = Columbus Recreation and Parks Department | visitation_num = | visitation_year = | visitation_ref = | status = | awards = | open = | camp_sites = | hiking_trails = | other_info = | public_transit = {{bus icon}} {{rint|COTA}} {{COTA link|1|2|5|8|Night Owl}}<br/>{{bike icon}} CoGo | website = {{URL|http://goodalepark.org/}} | child = | embedded = }} '''Goodale Park''' is a public park in the Victorian Village neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It was donated to the city in 1851 by Lincoln Goodale. For a few months during the Civil War, it was a staging area for Union troops known as Camp Jackson.<ref name="ShortNorth4">{{cite web | url=http://www.shortnorth.com/LincolnGoodalePartFour.html | title=Dr. Lincoln Goodale and His Living Legacy Part Four: Goodale Park: A Brief History from the Beginning through the Civil War Years | publisher=Short North Gazette, Columbus, Ohio | date=March 2007 | access-date=June 19, 2012 | author=Mullet Randall, Beverly}}</ref> ComFest, a large, free, multi-day, non-corporate, music and arts annual festival, is held in the park in June.

Located immediately north of downtown Columbus, the park is bordered by Buttles Avenue on the North, Park Street on the East, Goodale Street on the South, and Dennison Avenue on the West. Goodale Park features a pond with a fountain, a gazebo, four (4) tennis courts, three (3) pickleball courts, a basketball court, a children's playground, a shelter house, and more.

The park contributes to the Near Northside Historic District, on the National Register of Historic Places.<ref name="nrhpdoc">{{cite book|title=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form|series=File Unit: National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmarks Program Records: Ohio, 1964 - 2013|publisher=National Park Service|url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71988521|date=|access-date=January 8, 2021}}</ref>

== History ==

=== Early history === The 37-acre site was donated by Dr. Lincoln Goodale on July 14, 1851, to be used as a public park or pleasure resort.<ref name=":0" /> He had originally purchased the property for railroads to gain access to the city. When the park opened in 1852 featuring a wooded grove of trees, it was the second largest municipal park in the country, the first at the time being Boston Common.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last1=Betti|first1=Tom|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vzqACQAAQBAJ|title=Columbus Neighborhoods: A Guide to the Landmarks of Franklinton, German Village, King-Lincoln, Olde Town East, Short North & the University District|last2=Lentz|first2=Ed|last3=Sauer|first3=Doreen Uhas|date=2013-10-01|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-1-62584-656-3|language=en}}</ref>

=== Camp Jackson during the Civil War === thumb|Gates dating to the 1860s From April to June 1861, the park was used as a staging area for new recruits for the Union Army at the request of three city councilmen.<ref name=":1" /> The camp started in April when Governor William Dennison, at the urging of President Lincoln, called on Ohio communities to revive their militias and send them to Columbus.

"A high picket fence is erected around the camp, and the curious public mills around all day. Few visitors are allowed in. There are reports that the troops eat very well while in the camp."

The Governor's Guards, a corps of soldiers stationed at the camp, marched through Columbus on a Saturday morning to urge the local people to show their patriotism and enlist in the cause. A Captain Morrow was particularly successful: his company grew so large from new recruits that he started a second company, and was nearly able to fill that one as well. "Any young man interested in enlisting in this company, "B" of the 3rd Regiment, is told to call at Camp Jackson at an early hour."

In June, Camp Jackson's military operations are transferred to Camp Chase, {{convert|4|mi}} west of Columbus,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Camp_Chase?rec=662|title=Camp Chase - Ohio History Central}}</ref> and Camp Jackson reverts to being a public park. During its peak, about 8,000 troops were stationed at the camp. Among the officers stationed at the camp were two future presidents: Rutherford B. Hayes and William McKinley.<ref name="ShortNorth4" />

=== Post-Civil War === thumb|Lake and boathouse c. 1897 After the Civil War, the park was under construction until 1875 for the creation of a carriage drive, landscaping inspired by Andrew Jackson Downing, and a lake house.<ref name=":1" /> Starting in 1874 during construction, the park exhibited various animals to draw children and their guardians to the park.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Seifert|first=Mark|date=March 6, 1977|title=Goodale Left His Mark|url=https://login.webproxy3.columbuslibrary.org/login?qurl=https://infoweb.newsbank.com%2fapps%2fnews%2fdocument-view|access-date=2022-02-23|website=login.webproxy3.columbuslibrary.org|publisher=Columbus Dispatch|pages=285–286}}</ref> In 1888, a bronze bust, the Lincoln Goodale Monument, was erected in the park commemorating Dr. Goodale's gift to the city.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Goodale Park|url=https://www.columbus.gov/recreationandparks/parks/Goodale-Park/|access-date=2022-02-10|website=www.columbus.gov|archive-date=April 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200424124133/https://www.columbus.gov/recreationandparks/parks/Goodale-Park/|url-status=dead}}</ref> The monument's pedestal was designed by Richard Morris Hunt, the same man who designed the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty.

From 1900 to the 1950s, the park faced multiple challenges for development, including a site for Memorial Hall, a Carnegie Library, a branch library, and a bus garage.<ref name=":1" /> In July 1910, the park once again hosted troops when the Ohio National Guard was called in to quell a streetcar strike when it looked to turn violent. The troops stayed for two weeks and after their departure, the worst violence of the strike erupted.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Taggart|first=Nick|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qKjMDwAAQBAJ|title=Short North Neighborhood|date=2020|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-1-4671-0456-2|language=en}}</ref>

In the 1970s and 1980s, economic downturn negatively affected the park, making it unsafe and unmaintained. In the mid-1980s, the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department began installing train tracks in the park (from a former Columbus Zoo train) and neighbors reacted and began organizing to have a say in the park's direction.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Friends of Goodale Park|url=http://www.shortnorth.com/FriendsofGoodale.html|access-date=2022-02-12|website=www.shortnorth.com}}</ref> In 1987, the [https://www.friendsofgoodalepark.org/ Friends of Goodale Park] was officially formed to maintain and preserve the park. In 2004, they began the restoration of the Goodale Gates, erected during the park's time as Camp Jackson.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Goodale Park Gates|url=https://www.ohiohistory.org/preserve/state-historic-preservation-office/hpawards/past-recipients/2014-shpo-awards/goodale-park-gates|access-date=February 10, 2022|website=Ohio History Connection}}{{Dead link|date=February 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref>

The Goodale Park fountain was designed by Malcolm Cochran and was completed in 2013. It integrates the park's history and the Sell's Brother Circus House at the corner of Dennison and Buttles Avenues. The two elephants on top of the fountain are a salute to the history of Columbus' Sells Brothers Circus.

== Park amenities == Park facilities include a pond with a fountain, a gazebo, four (4) tennis courts, three (3) pickleball courts, a basketball court, a kickball field, a children's playground, a shelter house, and more<ref name=":0" /> The shelter house and gazebo both have Victorian-style architecture.<ref>{{Cite web|date=October 14, 2020|title=Goodale Park facilities to get upgrade|url=https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2020/10/14/improvements-to-shelter-house.html|access-date=2022-02-17|website=www.bizjournals.com}}</ref> The park is home to two Champion Trees: a Chinese catalpa and Smoothleaf elm.<ref name=":0" />

==Gallery== <gallery widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5" mode="packed"> File:Columbus, Ohio JJ 47.jpg|Pond and gazebo File:Elephant Fountain - 8274240792 (cropped).jpg|Goodale Park Fountain in the fall File:Columbus, OH - Goodale Park 01.jpg|William H. Fish Gate, with the Fish House directly behind it and the Circus House arched driveway to the left File:Flagg monument.jpg|Charles Benton Flagg Memorial, on the east side of the park </gallery>

==See also== {{portal|Ohio}} * List of parks in Columbus, Ohio

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{commons category}} *[http://goodalepark.org/ Friends of Goodale Park]

{{Columbus Recreation and Parks}}

Category:Parks in Columbus, Ohio Category:Protected areas of Franklin County, Ohio Category:Ohio in the American Civil War Category:Historic district contributing properties in Columbus, Ohio Category:National Register of Historic Places in Columbus, Ohio Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1852 Category:Parks established in the 1850s Category:Protected areas established in 1852