City Park spreads across 1,300 acres of live oaks, lagoons, botanical gardens, golf courses, and cultural institutions, one of the largest urban parks in the United States and the green heart of New Orleans since the mid-nineteenth century. City Park occupies land that was the Allard Plantation before it was acquired by the city in 1850, and the great live oaks that shade the central sections of the park are among the oldest trees in Louisiana — some are believed to be eight hundred years old, their massive spreading limbs draped with Spanish moss and supported in places by braces that have been installed to help them bear the weight of centuries. The park was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when it flooded under eight feet of water for nearly a month, killing much of the botanical collection and damaging most of the structures.
The recovery took years and the park has been largely restored, with significant improvements to its facilities. The sculpture garden adjacent to the New Orleans Museum of Art is one of the finest outdoor sculpture collections in the South. The Storyland playground and Carousel Gardens amusement park provide what they have provided for generations of New Orleans children: an afternoon of uncomplicated pleasure under the oaks.
The park also houses Café Du Monde's City Park location, a tennis center, a botanical garden, and four golf courses. It is the kind of urban park that makes a city livable.