Meadow Valley Park

In 1970, the city of Washington was interested in building a sewage treatment facility at the foot of Ernest Street but needed to purchase the property from Roy Roper to do so.  To help entice him, they sought out an option on what was then known as the Schmoeger estate, a 90-acre property between Ernest Street and Legion Road.  That property was then in the hands of the Schmoeger heirs, who were losing interest in retaining it.  The city’s plan was to offer Roper part of that property in exchange for the property where they intended to build the treatment plant.

Roper was extraordinarily cooperative. He and the city agreed on a price for the treatment plant property without the need for a Schmoeger property exchange, so the city ended up with both. Once that was finalized, it was announced that the new property was to become a park, the first park property in the city that followed Washington’s western trend at that time.

The newly formed Washington Park District was incredibly busy at the time, having just purchased the Heyl property behind Lincoln School and in discussions to purchase the Neptune Swim Club, so the development of this new park would be years long.

One potential use for the park that never came to fruition was a mini-bike and go-kart track. Bob Linsley, then a high school student, submitted a proposal to the park board in 1973 for the construction of such a track on the park property. After doing research, the park board pointed to significant supervisory responsibilities as well as exorbitant insurance costs as reasons for not proceeding with the concept.

The park's development finally started to take shape in 1975. A naming contest was held, and out of 263 entries, St. Patrick’s student Jean Mahony won with the suggested name Meadow Valley Park. Mahony’s prize was a swimming pass for the 1975 season.

Initial plans for the park called for a much more structured park than what we see today.  The early sketches included ball diamonds, education centers, and more dedicated planting areas.  However, failed grants and cost-cutting by the state in the mid to late 1970s kept most of these plans on the drawing board. 

In 1978, the first shelters were built in the park.  The Washington Park District funded a shelter from Ernest Street, and the Kiwanis Club funded another. The Legion Road entrance to the park was adorned with a shelter funded by the Washington Jaycees.  All shelters were built by Wesley Wenger.

The park remained unchanged as a beautiful escape for the next thirty years. In 2009, however, the waters started churning as the park district, behind the impetus of resident Bobbi Volk, started a fund-raising campaign to construct a dog park at the site. Originally, the dog park was to be located on the Legion Road side of the park. Residents living on Legion Road came out in full force against constructing a park using their road as the entry, calling it unsafe for the increased traffic.

Fundraising for the dog park was slow and took years to reach a significant total. By 2016, the total raised had swollen to $46,000, which allowed the park district to build a smaller dog park than the one originally envisioned, this one accessed off of Ernest Street. The cost to build the park was $60,000.

In 2017, Washington resident Sarah Hostetler brought the idea of a pollinator garden to the park district, and the district obliged by constructing a 3-acre prairie along Legion Road at the park's entrance. Many groups were and continue to be instrumental in the development and maintenance of the prairie, including Illinois River Valley Pheasants Forever, the ICC SAFE chapter, the Central Illinois Monarch Task Force, and the Boy Scouts.