Between downtown Jacksonville and the historic neighborhood of Springfield, Henry J. Klutho Park spreads 18.34 acres of public green at your feet. This is the largest of a network of parks that run along Hogans Creek, and right here Klutho Park even hosts an 18-hole disc golf course. Once called Springfield Park, most of this green was created between 1899 and 1901 on land donated by the Springfield Company.
The park also welcomed the city’s first zoo when it opened here in 1914. Walk the paths and you’ll see echoes of the Hogans Creek Improvement Project of 1929–30, when architect Henry J. Klutho (1873–1964) and engineer Charles Imeson reshaped much of the grounds into a Venetian-style promenade. Klutho was a well-respected Springfield resident; his highrise buildings and use of the Prairie School style helped transform Jacksonville after the Great Fire of 1901.
In 1984 the City of Jacksonville honored him by renaming portions of Springfield Park for Klutho. The promenade, the creek's winding route, and the open fairways of the disc golf course spread out before you.