Lincoln Pioneers Park a Gift to City, State

Pioneers Park is a gift that keeps on giving. That’s exactly what John F. Harris, a New York investment banker who grew up in Lincoln, envisioned when he handed 500 acres to the city as a Christmas present in 1928 and added 100 acres at the park’s dedication in 1930. “I hope it will be a source of much pleasure to many for as long a period as one dare to prophesy,” he wrote in 1929. 

Because of its architectural and historical significance, Pioneers Park, at Lincoln’s southwest limits, is a Nebraska landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The park is important for at least two reasons. One, it’s a fine Midwestern example of the Beaux Arts style, also called Modern American Landscape style. You might recognize a few other significant examples: New York’s Central Park, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, Boston’s Franklin Park. Two, it’s important for its association with a searing event in our nation’s history, the Great Depression.

We can thank Ernst H. Herminghaus, Nebraska’s first professional landscape architect, for placement of Pioneers Park among landscape achievements.  Herminghaus was a conduit, to the Midwest, of nationally significant landscape design. Born in Lincoln in 1890, he set up practice with a bachelor’s degree in horticulture from the University of Nebraska in 1913 and a master’s degree in landscape architecture from Harvard University in 1915. 

He influenced the design of Lincoln’s parks from 1915 to 1948, but his crowning achievement was Pioneers Park. During much of his tenure, public spaces were in short supply in Lincoln. Between 1920 and 1930, the city, already the 110^th largest in the country at 80,000 residents, annexed several nearby communities, increasing its population to 105,000. In addition, many people, hurt by the Depression, couldn’t afford commercial recreation attractions and looked to public sources. Harris’ gift to the city was a godsend, and Herminghaus made the most of it.

He saw in his mind’s eye a place of escape and rejuvenation, of reflection and recreation. Incorporating the influence of his Harvard professors, themselves leaders in landscape design, Herminghaus envisioned ornamental lakes and ponds, activity areas connected not by boring linear streets but by graceful curving roadways, and conifer-flanked avenues of grass leading the viewer’s attention toward statues in the park or back toward the Capitol building in the city.

He also saw possibilities that were more straightforward: a 27-hole golf course, an amphitheatre, a large zoo with an aquarium, a swimming pool, tennis courts, and cabin and camping areas. But the onset of the Depression forced cuts in the proposal. The Beaux Arts design elements and the golf course remained; the other ideas resolved into a large picnic area, a nature center, and a simpler zoo. The amphitheatre was developed much later, in 1947, in an area of the park called Pinewood Bowl. Access through a canopy of pines enhances the enjoyment of an evening’s entertainment in this beautiful natural setting.

Pioneers Park is an outstanding example of the results of unemployment-relief programs. Men put to work through local and federal agencies, such as the Works Progress Administration (WPA), brought Herminghaus’ dreams to life, turning 600 acres of vacant land into a multi-faceted gem of a public space. They laid roads, dug wells, strung electric wires, put up buildings, created flood-control and water-conservation projects, planted gardens, and sowed more than 6,000 pounds of grass seed. According to city annual reports, by 1932 they had planted 31,245 shrubs and 42,912 trees.

So important was Pioneers Park that Lincoln allotted more than half the city’s WPA funds and labor to it. Sure enough, work through the unemployment-relief agencies on Pioneers Park, as well as on other public projects, boosted the local economy, improving the welfare, not to mention the outlook, of residents of Lincoln and the surrounding area. 

Pioneers Park has changed in the years since Herminghaus put his plans on paper. Drought and disease have taken a toll on the plant life. The golf course has been reduced to 18 holes. New construction projects give a different look to the setting. But, because subsequent development has remained true to the designer’s intent, the park’s historical character remains intact. 

And Pioneers Park remains an example of what can happen when a former Nebraskan remembers his hometown with an act of generosity.

Editor’s Note: This is one in a series of articles on Nebraskans and former Nebraskans who have left living legacies to their hometowns, through wills, bequests and charitable giving, written by Judith Parks of Papillion. The articles are funded, prepared and distributed by the Nebraska Community Foundation, which is helping rural towns across the state establish permanent endowments for community projects through the Nebraska Legacy Challenge. Additional funding is provided by the Nebraska Development Network and the Nebraska Humanities Council (NHC). For information on NHC, visit their website (www.nebraskahumanities.org) or call 402-474-2131. For further information on the Nebraska Community Foundation: 402-323-7330, Suite 200, 317 S. 12^th St., Lincoln, NE  68502-2197. The web site is www.nebcommfound.org. 

Nebraska Community Foundation

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Lincoln, NE  68501

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