Enos Park
Enos Park was donated to the city of Springfield by Susan Enos in 1905. Susan believed that a public park located on North Seventh Street would be of great advantage to the city of Springfield, and would add materially to the health and pleasure of the inhabitants, particularly those residing in the Northern part of the city. She conveyed a 320-foot square block of land partially bounded by Enterprise, Eighth, and Seventh Streets to be used as “a public ornamental park” (specifically excluding any kind of ball games). The provisions of the deed states that the city of Springfield would prevent the land from being used as a dump, preventing the encroachment of unlawful roads, driveways, or trespassers upon the land, build a sidewalk on the West side of the park land, and maintain all the sidewalks on the property. This park is still used as requested by Susan Enos and was completely renovated in 2008 by the Springfield Park District.
Enos Park was rededicated in the spring of 2009, more than 100 years after land was donated to the city by Julie Enos, on behalf of her father and the Enos family. Representatives of the Park District, City and EPNIA cut the ribbon to open the Park to the residents of the neighborhood.
In September 2010, the Park District once again partnered with the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association to begin renovations at Gehrmann Park, the second park in the Enos Park neighborhood. Through a $40,000 grant sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois and KaBOOM, the Park District was able to purchase new playground equipment, including the the highest and most unique slide found in any of the city parks. The Build Day, which included almost 200 volunteers, was preceded by a Design Day featuring the summer art students from the Springfield Art Association who designed their dream playground. Their designs were used to make the final selection of the playground equipment provided by Blue Cross Blue Shield.
In addition to installing new playground equipment, volunteers spread mulch, constructed new benches, and painted the pavilion. Additional work on Gehrmann Park is planned for the near future.
