Forest Park

Published Oct 6, 2026 · Updated Oct 6, 2026

Most cities have a big park. Forest Park is closer to a district of its own: about 1,300 acres with five major cultural institutions inside it, and no admission fee to the park itself. Show up without a plan and it still works; show up with one and it fills a day.

Opened in 1876, and meant to stay open

Forest Park was dedicated on June 24, 1876, to a crowd of about 50,000. The park's own timeline quotes the dedication's promise that it was for “the enjoyment of yourselves, your children and your children's children forever,” with no sign telling anyone to keep off the grass. Streetcar lines reached it in 1885, and by 1896 seven lines were carrying more than 2.5 million riders a year. Then the city won the World's Fair.

1904, and what is still standing

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition ran from April 30 to December 1, 1904, and drew more than 20 million people. Most of it was built to be torn down, and was. A few pieces were not.

The Saint Louis Art Museum, on Art Hill, is the one permanent building from the Fair. Cass Gilbert designed it as the core of the Fair's Palace of Fine Arts, which showed about 11,000 works from 26 countries; the temporary wings are long gone, and the museum's own account calls the main building the sole survivor. Admission is free every day.

Down in the Saint Louis Zoo, the 1904 Flight Cage is the other survivor. The Smithsonian commissioned it for the Fair and planned to move it to Washington afterward. St. Louisans objected, the city bought it for $3,500 (it had cost $17,500 to build), and the Zoo says that led to what became the first municipally supported zoo in the world. The Zoo is free every day. The Missouri History Museum keeps a 1904 World's Fair exhibit and is free to enter too.

At the foot of Art Hill, the Grand Basin was restored in 2003 and is now one of the park's most photographed spots.

What the park picked up afterward

The Muny calls itself the nation's oldest and largest outdoor musical theatre and has run for more than a century. The Jewel Box, a glass conservatory, opened on November 14, 1936, with Public Works Administration support, and reopened in 2003 with room for events. In 1927, more than 100,000 people packed Art Hill to welcome Charles Lindbergh home from Paris.

The park needed work by the late 20th century. Forest Park Forever, a nonprofit conservancy, was founded in 1986 to partner with the city on the backlog, and a 1995-96 master plan and “Restoring the Glory” campaign raised $94 million. What visitors see now is largely the result.

A day in the park

The park has 30 miles of paths and trails, a Nature Playscape for small children, and the Dennis & Judith Jones Visitor and Education Center at 5595 Grand Drive. A reasonable order: a morning at the Zoo, lunch near the Boathouse, an afternoon on Art Hill and inside the Art Museum, and a Muny night if it's summer. The Saint Louis Science Center is the fifth of the park's major institutions; check its own site for what it charges.

Forest Park turned 150 on June 24, 2026. The Missouri History Museum is running an exhibit called “Yours Forever: Forest Park at 150,” and Forest Park Forever says a new destination, The Glade, is due by the end of 2026. Current details are on the conservancy's official page, forestparkforever.org.

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