Highland Park (Rochester, New York) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Highland Park |
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Stairway in northeastern side of Highland Park
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| Type | Arboretum |
| Location | 171 Reservoir Avenue Rochester, New York |
| Area | 150 acres (61 ha) |
| Created | 1888 |
| Operated by | Monroe County |
| Open | All year |
Highland Park, also known as Highland Botanical Park, is a special kind of park called an arboretum. An arboretum is like a living museum for trees and plants! It's located in Rochester, New York, in the United States.
This beautiful park is one of several in Rochester that were first designed by a famous landscape architect named Frederick Law Olmsted. He also designed other parks in the area, like Genesee Valley Park and Maplewood Park.
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Park History
Highland Park began in 1888 thanks to two nurserymen, George Ellwanger and Patrick Barry. They gave 20 acres (about 8 hectares) of land to the Rochester community. This gift helped create one of the first public arboretums in the country.
Frederick Law Olmsted designed the park to look very natural. In 1892, a horticulturist named John Dunbar started the park's famous lilac collection. He was known locally as Johnny Lilacseed! Some of the 20 types of lilacs he planted came from the Balkan Mountains in Europe.
Amazing Features
Highland Park sits on top of a large hill. This hill was formed by a glacier long, long ago. The park shares the hill with a water reservoir and a school called Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.
The park covers 150 acres (about 61 hectares). It has more than 1,200 lilac bushes, with over 500 different kinds! You can also find many other cool plants here.
Plant Collections
The park is home to beautiful Japanese maple trees and sweet-smelling magnolias. There are also many types of shrubs, like barberries, azaleas, mountain laurel, and andromeda. You can even see 700 different kinds of rhododendrons!
In the rock garden, you'll find tiny dwarf evergreens. The gardens also have spring bulbs, wildflowers, and a huge bed of 10,000 pansy plants. This pansy bed is shaped like an oval "carpet" and its pattern changes every year.
Park Structures and Gardens
Highland Park has a natural amphitheater where events are held. There's also a sunken garden and a unique building called the "Warner Castle," which looks like a Gothic-style castle.
The park also has a conservatory greenhouse called Lamberton Conservatory. A statue of the famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass stands overlooking the amphitheater. The outdoor amphitheater, known as Highland Park Bowl, is used for summer concerts, Shakespeare plays, and free movie nights.
You can also find several special gardens in the park. These include The Greater Rochester Vietnam Veterans Memorial, The AIDS Remembrance Garden, and the Poet's Garden. These are all located in Highland Park South.
Fun Events
Every May, Highland Park hosts Rochester's yearly Lilac Festival. This is the biggest festival of its kind in North America! People come from all over the world to see the beautiful lilacs.
The Rochester Civic Garden Center is located in Warner Castle. It has a library with over 4,000 books about plants and gardening. They also offer classes for people who want to learn more about plants.
Since 1997, a group called Rochester Community Players has performed free Shakespeare plays. They put on one of William Shakespeare's plays every July at the Highland Park Bowl.
The Goethe Monument
On September 17, 1950, a monument was placed in Highland Park. It celebrated the 200th birthday of a famous poet named Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. A committee led by Ewald P. Appelt helped raise money for the monument.
William Ehrich, a local artist and head of the Sculpture Department at the University of Rochester, created the monument. He wanted to show Goethe's "spiritual aristocracy" and his look around age sixty-five. Sadly, the Goethe monument was removed from Highland Park in July 2015 and is no longer there.
