Woodland Park: A Field Guide to the Heights' Original Park

Before there was a playground here, there was an amusement park, a lake with rented boats, and a waterslide. Woodland Park, at 212 Parkview St in the Woodland Heights neighborhood, is Houston's second-oldest public park and was the city's very first streetcar park. More than a century later, it is one of the friendliest green spaces near the Heights, and it still has a story worth telling.

The Amusement Park Roots

In 1903, the Houston Electric Street Railway Company developed this land as Highland Park, a recreation destination built so trolley riders would have somewhere to go on their day out. It offered a restaurant, concession stands, an aerial swing, and a waterslide that emptied into Lake Highland, where visitors could rent boats. It was Houston's original streetcar park, a small-town summer afternoon sold by the rail ticket. The city bought the property in 1911 and renamed it Woodland Park in 1914, honoring the new Woodland Heights neighborhood around it, which was platted in 1907 as a wooded streetcar suburb. For more on that story, our history of Woodland Heights and the streetcar story fill in the details.

The early 1900s park was even briefly home to a pair of ostriches purchased in 1915 through a neighborhood penny drive, early "zoo" residents that tell you exactly how much this green space meant to the growing community around it.

What's There Now

Today Woodland Park keeps the full-amenities feel that made it a destination. You will find the Woodland Community Center, a solid playground, lighted tennis courts with a practice backboard, indoor and outdoor basketball courts, a baseball and sports field, and walking paths that wind under mature live oaks and pines. Picnic tables and benches are scattered throughout, which makes it one of the most dependable spots in the area for a low-effort family afternoon. Our picnic guide ranks it among the best tables near the Heights.

The Park as a Habitat

What sets Woodland Park apart from newer parks is its natural character. The mature canopy supports real wildlife, and the Houston Audubon Society runs a regular urban bird survey here, counting migrants and residents that stop in the oaks. The volunteer nonprofit Friends of Woodland Park works to preserve both the habitat and the park's history, and it is one of the easier ways in the neighborhood to get involved in a few hours at a time. If your kids love birds, this is the place to bring binoculars and a field guide instead of a tablet.

Woodland Park has been a Heights destination for more than 120 years, and it keeps earning that role the quiet way: an old-fashioned park with room for a birthday party, a pick-up game, or an hour of sitting under the live oaks. Next time you walk the Heights Boulevard esplanade toward the bayou, wander a few blocks east to the park that started it all. It is worth the detour.