Cleveland Park, Urban park in Greenville, United States.
Cleveland Park covers more than 120 acres along Richland Creek and the Reedy River, with much of it greenway. It holds a softball field, volleyball and tennis courts, several playgrounds, eight picnic shelters and the Fernwood Nature Trail, and the Swamp Rabbit Trail runs through it.
On December 31, 1924, William Choice Cleveland donated a crescent-shaped 110 acres on the southeast side of Greenville, encouraged by park commission chairman John Alexander McPherson. The city laid out two baseball fields, a horse ring and a playground in 1925, and the park opened on January 1, 1926. A $110,000 bond issue under Mayor Richard Watson followed in 1928, when the tract was surveyed at 126 acres; during the Great Depression the WPA channelized the river bed to improve drainage.
The Rock Quarry Garden began in 1930 when the Greenville Garden Club took over a Civil War-era rock quarry; it won a Better Homes and Gardens award in 1932 and, after a 1980s renovation, is now used for weddings and receptions. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial stands among the park's picnic shelters and trails.
The park lies along Richland Creek and the Reedy River, with the Swamp Rabbit Trail passing through it and linking to the Fernwood Nature Trail, the Ramona Graham Fitness Trail and the Troop 19 Trail. The Greenville Zoo borders the grounds, and eight picnic shelters, tennis and volleyball courts and several playgrounds are distributed across the site.
At the park's heart stands a memorial to Greenville native Rudolf Anderson, whose U-2 was shot down over Cuba in October 1962; he was the only American killed in the Cuban Missile Crisis. An F-86 Sabre, the type he flew, is displayed with panels on his life and mission.
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