Children enjoy the new splash pad at Parkersburg City Park on its opening day, May 31, 2019. (File Photo)

PARKERSBURG — From horse racing to a zoo to ice skating and more, City Park has been a center of recreation and activity in Parkersburg and beyond for more than a century.

“It’s very convenient to probably 90% of the Mid-Ohio Valley,” Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce said. “The daily use is substantial.”

Children frequent the playground area, high school and American Legion baseball teams play at Bennett Stump Field, scholastic and other tennis leagues compete on the Pam Reeves Memorial tennis courts, while others face off in pickleball or games of pickup basketball. Attendance at the pool has skyrocketed in summer months after the addition of the splash pad four years ago.

Events are held throughout the year, from the Harvest Moon, Mid-Ohio Valley Multicultural and West Virginia Honey festivals to family reunions and birthday parties.

“There’s car shows there,” Joyce said. “There’s folks that just use it for exercise and general recreation on a daily basis.”

About 40 acres of the land that would become the park between 23rd Street and Park Avenue was purchased in 1887 by five local merchants as an agricultural and recreational park for the Wood County Fair Association, according to a history of the park compiled by Toni Tiano and other materials provided by the Wood County Historical and Preservation Society. An option was secured for the purchase of the land in 1896, but a special bond issue to fund the acquisition and $5,000 in improvements was initially defeated in a special election before being approved handily the following year.

Other land acquisitions over the years expanded the park to 46.6 acres.

Originally named City Park, the park was renamed Oak Wood Park in 1897, a decision reversed in 1911, with City Park returning as the official moniker.

The bed of the familiar pond at the park was one of the first improvements made, the history said, but it was initially a quarter-mile racing track for bicycles. Stables and a horse-racing track were later added where the pool and baseball diamond are now.

In 1905, the city received a $5,000 bequest from the estate of J.M. Jackson Jr. to build a fountain in the park. Topped by the distinctive Lady of the Lake sculpture, the fountain stood for decades before being damaged by a lightning strike in the early 1990s. Portions were replaced by fiberglass after that, but heavy winds in 2018 toppled the fountain and shattered the statue.

Using money from a fund established with a bequest from one of Jackson’s descendants, an insurance reimbursement and the general fund, the city had a new fountain built and installed in 2020.

“We’ve got a fountain that works, it’s beautiful … it’s period-appropriate from design, material and construction,” Joyce said.

In 1910, the city purchased a log cabin built in 1804 by Henry Cooper in Mineral Wells, the first permanent building in Wood County. The cabin was dismantled and rebuilt at the park, where it continues to stand as the Henry Cooper Log Cabin Museum, operated by the Daughters of the American Pioneers. City and state funds allowed rotting logs to be replaced and other repairs to be made in 2021.

The bicycle track was replaced in 1911 with a lily pond, which would become the pond in which people fish today and could once operate paddleboats and even ice skate upon. The first playground equipment was installed in 1913. It has grown and changed over the years, including the addition of the Juleps Pathways Playground, a project of the Junior League of Parkersburg to establish a playground accessible to all children.

In 1925, the horticultural hall used for displays and exhibits during fairs was replaced with the City Park Pavilion that stands today. Among a host of activities, it has been the site in recent years of the synthetic ice-skating rink purchased in 2020 by the city primarily with a contribution from the Ross Foundation. As it approaches a century of use, plans have been discussed to replace it with a larger multipurpose recreation center, although nothing is set in stone.

A bond issue in 1931 funded construction of a grandstand and baseball diamond. Parkersburg City Council recently allocated $1.75 million for improvements including Astroturf for the infield, a building for equipment and new lights, fencing and dugouts

For many years, the park had its own zoo that housed monkeys, peacocks, deer and more.

The swimming pool was built in 1936. Eighty-three years later, a $1.3 million splash pad was built next to it, with other renovations and features added to the main pool.

“It’s a home run,” Joyce said.

Half a dozen pickleball courts have been added to the park in recent years, three of them last summer.

“The first three are highly utilized,” Joyce said.

The park has long been a location for veterans monuments, with the latest addition being the Gold Star Families Memorial Monument dedicated in 2019.