Understanding the history of the recreation and parks system in Los Angeles helps contextualize current conditions and provides an opportunity to look to the future to create a stronger system.

Los Angeles was initially envisioned as a garden city, prioritizing private open spaces and bungalows. This contrasted with the denser development model found in cities in the Northeast and Midwest of the United States. As a result, the development of public parks in Los Angeles has not always matched the City’s rapidly expanding population.¹“Citywide Community Needs Assessment” (City of Los Angeles, Department of Recreation and Parks, 2009), 1. More recently, there has been a rapid densification and increase in the number of residents over the past fifteen years in the downtown area, whereas there are slower trends of expansion in the San Fernando Valley.²“Los Angeles Densest Urban Area: Revision of Census Bureau Data,” Newgeography.Com, accessed April 23, 2025. Findings from the Trust for Public Land show that Los Angeles has a relatively high abundance of large natural areas, but scores significantly low for amenities and overall equity and access.³“Gabrielino/Tongva Nation of the Greater Los Angeles Basin – NAHC Digital Atlas,” accessed March 28, 2025. Today, there is a collective effort to evaluate and reimagine how the parks system can better serve its residents in the future.

The following research is compiled primarily from the Municipal Parks, Recreation, and Leisure, 1886-1978 survey from the Los Angeles Citywide Historic Context Statement, the 100 Years of Recreation and Parks report published by the Recreation and Parks Department in 1988, and news articles and historic photographs from the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Public Library.

Los Angeles, known as “Tovangar” in the Tongva language, has been the home of Indigenous people such as the Tongva, or Gabrielino, Fernandeño Tataviam, and the Chumash for over 10,000 years.⁴75

Indigenous groups have cared for and continue to shape the land that makes up the present day city of Los Angeles and its surrounding areas, extending from the Santa Monica Mountains to the Channel Islands.76 Present-day downtown Los Angeles was primarily inhabited by the Tongva and their settlements were both independent and interconnected. In the 18th century, Spanish settlers established missions throughout California to spread Catholicism and strengthen allegiance to Spain, and many Indigenous communities were
enslaved at these missions. 77

Indigenous knowledge and present day research reveals that many present-day park sites are related to historic village sites or sacred sites of Indigenous Peoples. Spanish baptismal records collected by the Early California Cultural Atlas project suggest that there were around 100 Tongva villages spread across Los Angeles at the time of the missions.78 Griffith Park was the former home of the Tongva and there are at least three known settlement sites within the park: near Fern Dell, west of Travel Town near Universal City, and close to the Feliz adobe and ranger station.79

The City of Los Angeles was established by a group of settlers under Spanish colonial rule as a farming community in 1781.85 Under Anglo-American rule, which began in 1848, the City inherited two Spanish-style open plazas that structured public life: Plaza Park and Central Park (present-day Pershing Square).86 These plazas were organized with formal lawns and fruit trees with eventual additions such as fountains and walkways as the surrounding neighborhoods developed more residential and commercial uses.87 As the City’s population grew, it gradually began to acquire parcels of land to meet the needs of the residents for park purposes such as Eastlake Park (present-day Lincoln Park) which was acquired in 1874.88

As a result of growing land acquisitions, the City Council established the Parks Department in 1889.89 The largest park that came under their jurisdiction at the time was Elysian Park, which had already been acquired in 1886 and became the City’s first official park.90 A fifteen year period of expansion followed with the establishment of major parks such as Westlake (present-day MacArthur Park), Echo Park, Hollenbeck Park, Sunset Park (present-day Lafayette Park), and Griffith Park.91 These parks were primarily developed as pleasure gardens, which was in line with prevailing notions of nineteenth century romanticism and reflected the idea that there was innate goodness in a natural setting.92 Parks from this perspective were spaces of passive recreation and aesthetic beauty. Some parks also served as sites of water storage for the City’s zanja water distribution system prior to their integration with the municipal water system in 1904.93

In parallel, parks like Griffith reflected the concept of the ‘wilderness park,’ a prevalent idea at the time that sought to recreate a sense of wilderness within the urban environment.”94

This period was followed by a rise of municipal parks and playgrounds between 1904-1931, which were products of the Progressive Era reforms of the early 1900s.95 Both these park typologies pushed back on the concept of the passive pleasure ground. The municipal park was conceived to be an accessible setting for residents to engage in activities, containing sporting facilities such as ball fields, tennis courts, as well as structures for educational and cultural use. Concurrently, the playground emerged as a concept and was seen as a beneficial setting for children’s upbringing in underresourced neighborhoods.96 Playgrounds were physically separated from parks and governed by a Playground Commission which was established in 1904 and supported by upper and middle-class women’s organizations.97 Family camps as a municipal recreation service were also established in 1913 and became popular programs which were replicated by other cities like San Diego and Sacramento.98

The creation of a Department of Parks and a Department of Playgrounds and Recreation (formerly the Playground Commission) as a result of a new charter in 1925 was a turning point in the development of the City’s parks system.99 George Hjelte was appointed the first general manager of the Department of Playgrounds and Recreation in 1926 and continued in the role until 1962, playing a significant role in the evolution of the parks system. The concept of playgrounds expanded in the mid-1920s to include adult programming and recreation.100 The swimming pool, or plunge, as it was popularly referred to, was a key facility that characterized this shift. The plunge at the Griffith Park Playground was one of the largest swimming pools of the time and was opened to the public in 1927.101 In addition to swimming pools, municipal beaches were also constructed, and in 1928 the City used dredged sand to create Cabrillo Beach.

The Great Depression resulted in a reduction in budget for parks operations and employee salaries. As a response to the economic crisis, the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) established in 1933 allowed the City to hire unemployed workers for government programs. The City benefited from this program and was able to expand park maintenance and recreation programs.102 The concept of the recreational facility was growing in popularity among planners and landscape architects at this time and the Olmsted Brothers and Harland Bartholomew Associates proposed two types: the neighborhood center and the regional or district center.103 The neighborhood centers were envisioned as everyday recreational use spaces for all age groups; whereas, the regional centers would focus on athletic contests.

While their ideas were not fully realized due to economic constraints, elements were incorporated into WPA projects such as the Rancho Cienega Playground (present-day Rancho Cienega Park).104 Further, during the Second World War, parks and playgrounds were designated as places of refuge during an emergency, and recreation directors were involved in mobilizing volunteers in the Civil Defense Corps.105

In 2009, RAP conducted a Citywide Community Needs Assessment that provided a framework for long range planning initiatives but did not result in significant new funding. In 2018, RAP completed a Parks Condition Assessment that determined there was over $2B in unmet construction and maintenance needs.122 With the need for additional resources growing — and Proposition K, a 1996 voter-approved measure providing $25 million annually for recreation and parks through property taxes, set to expire in 2026 — the City developed a replacement funding measure.123

In November 2022, the Los Angeles City Council placed Proposition SP on the ballot, which aimed to generate approximately $227 million annually through parcel taxes.124 However, this measure failed, which is attributed primarily to the lack of a clear, detailed plan for fund allocation.

The system today still faces ongoing issues with deferred maintenance, and reduced staff have made it difficult for RAP to achieve many goals in the 2000s. Nonetheless, since 2000, the park system has expanded by over 1,100 acres, including acquisitions such as South East Valley Skate Park, parks along the Los Angeles River and Aliso Creek Confluence Park, and Ascot Hills Park.

The current Park Needs Assessment is the City’s first significant initiative to strengthen the parks system since the 2009 Citywide Community Needs Assessment, reflecting the City’s initiative to meet the current and future recreational needs of the residents.