Let’s Talk About Parks: Park Names

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Think of your favorite places to be outside, and chances are a park will make it onto your list, right after your school playground or backyard. Some park names make sense. London’s Primrose Hill has — you guessed it — lots of primroses. Pony Express National Historic Trail stretches through eight states and follows the trail of the mail-carrying pony express riders. Guess what caribou-populated valley Alaska’s Kobuk Valley National Park is located within? Kobuk Valley, of course. And Pittsburgh’s own North Park is named for its location in the northern edge of our region.

But not all park names are as immediately logical. Some of the city parks you love most have familiar names that may hold a bit of mystery. Let’s explore a few of those park names.

The Hill District’s newly restored August Wilson Park — formerly Cliffside Park — will open with a community celebration on Aug. 6 and is named after playwright August Wilson. He was born and lived in the Hill, and went on to write a series of 10 plays, nine of which are set in the Hill District near the location of his namesake park... Read the full article