| Stead Park | |
| Photo Width: | 300 |
| Map: | United States Washington, D.C. central |
| Type: | Urban park |
| Location: | Washington, D.C. |
| Coords: | 38.91°N -77.0376°W |
| Created: | 1953 |
| Operator: | D.C. Parks & Recreation |
| Status: | Open all year |
Stead Park is a 1.5-acre (0.61 ha) municipal park located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Northwest Washington, D.C. Among its facilities are Stead Recreation Center, located at 1625 P Street NW; a lighted basketball court; an athletic field with a 60feet baseball diamond; and a playground.[1]
The park hosts public events such as Summer Movie Mania, an outdoor screening sponsored by the city government.[2] [3] [4] Stead Park is also used as a practice field by the Washington Renegades RFC, the first rugby union club in the United States to recruit gay men and men of color.[5] [6]
The park and its small staff are administered by the city's Department of Parks and Recreation. Stead Park, whose property was valued at $8,659,560 in 2009,[7] is partially funded by a private trust created by Washington architect Robert Stead (1846-1943). The park is named for Stead's wife, Mary Force Stead.[8]
The portion of the park next to P Street once held 19th-century row houses. One of them, an 1878 house at 1625 P Street, was built by Henry Hurt, a Confederate Army veteran and president of the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company. (Archaeological work during a 2008 renovation uncovered artifacts and brick foundations from that house and another at 1613 P Street.)[9]
In 1951, work began on Stead Park, an explicitly unsegregated recreational facility. The single-story fuel sheds from the row houses at 1621, 1623, and 1625 P Street were consolidated, expanded, and topped with a second story; this structure became the park's recreation center. The park was eventually completed at a cost of $80,000[10], and formally opened on November 13, 1953.
In 2003, plans for a four-story, multimillion-dollar gay community center to be built on a small section of the aging park sparked a dispute among Dupont Circle residents and the Washington D.C. Center for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender People. The plans were ultimately abandoned.[11] [12]
In 2008, the recreation center and playground were renovated. Work began in April and the park reopened on December 15.[13]
In 2022, the city began a $15.4 million renovation of the recreation center, intended as a "modernization of the existing recreation facility with an addition and to bring it up to ADA standards." Completion is expected in fall 2023.[14]