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1938: Rose Park and Lincoln Park

A WPA garden, a stadium and a theater on the west side, and one of two ‘colored’ parks.

Parks and grounds· 1938–1952

Tyler Rose GardenLincoln ParkTyler Civic Theatre
What the sources put on the map by 1952, over today’s streets.Under it: USGS map, 1948, the 1:62,500 quadrangle, around Tyler. U.S. Geological Survey 1:62,500-scale Quadrangle for Tyler, TX 1948 courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The record

  1. 1912

    The city acquires the land that becomes the Rose Garden.1

  2. 1937

    The Tyler Park Board recommends six new parks, four for white residents and two ‘colored’ parks.2

  3. 1938

    The garden begins as a WPA park and rose garden project; the city puts its federal grant at $181,255. Lincoln Park, 2.5 acres at North Confederate Avenue and West Nutbush Street, is given for park use.12

  4. 1942

    Rose Stadium, at 609 Fair Park Dr., opens. Tyler ISD owns it, and it seats 10,566.3

  5. 1949

    The city has six white playgrounds and three for Black children. That year Thomas R. Register, Rev. J.W. Presley and Dr. P.E. Madlock of the Tyler Negro Chamber of Commerce seek access to Tyler State Park and then file Register v. Sandefer; the park is fully integrated only after the Civil Rights Act of 1964.24

  6. 1951

    Tyler Civic Theatre, at 400 Rose Park Dr., opens what it calls the nation’s first building built specifically for theatre in the round.5

  7. 1952

    The Tyler Municipal Rose Garden officially opens with nearly 3,000 bushes donated by local nurseries.6

  8. Today

    The Rose Garden at 420 Rose Park Dr. covers 14 acres and is free and open dawn to dark every day, as listed when we researched it in September 2026.7

Notes

  1. Visit Tyler: Tyler Rose Garden (visittyler.com); Tyler Morning Telegraph, 2025-09-06: Tyler Rose Gardens Nationally Recognized Reputation Draws over 100,000 Visitors Each Year (tylerpaper.com); Living New Deal: Tyler Municipal Rose Garden (livingnewdeal.org). Research notes

  2. National Register Multiple Property Documentation Form, Historic and Architectural Resources of Tyler, Texas (2001) (atlas.thc.texas.gov). Research notes

  3. KLTV, 2026-09-05: Tyler High Runs Past Legacy Behind McMiller's 326 Yard Night (kltv.com); Tyler Morning Telegraph, 2025-09-06: How You Feelin Red Tyler Legacy Wins Rose City Rivalry over Tyler High for First Time Since 2022 (tylerpaper.com); TexasBob: stadium page 568 (Rose Stadium, Tyler) (texasbob.com). Research notes

  4. Vicki Betts, "For the Citizens of East Texas": The Desegregation of Tyler State Park (UT Tyler Scholar Works, 2015) (scholarworks.uttyler.edu). Research notes

  5. Visit Tyler: Tyler Civic Theatre (visittyler.com); KLTV: Proud of East Texas Tyler Civic Theater (kltv.com). The "nation's first" is the theatre's own claim. Research notes

  6. Tyler Morning Telegraph, 2025-09-06: Tyler Rose Gardens Nationally Recognized Reputation Draws over 100,000 Visitors Each Year (tylerpaper.com); Garden Club of America: civic project 680 (Tyler rose garden) (gcamerica.org); KTRE, 2021-01-25: Mark Texas History Smith County Rose Industry (ktre.com); Visit Tyler: Tyler Rose Garden (visittyler.com); Living New Deal: Tyler Municipal Rose Garden (livingnewdeal.org); Tyler Morning Telegraph, 2026-05-18: 93rd Texas Rose Festival Queen Joins Community for Rose Sunday Service Celebrating New Blooms (tylerpaper.com); Wikipedia: National Register of Historic Places listings in Smith County, Texas (en.wikipedia.org). Research notes

  7. Visit Tyler: Tyler Rose Garden (visittyler.com); Tyler Morning Telegraph, 2025-09-06: Tyler Rose Gardens Nationally Recognized Reputation Draws over 100,000 Visitors Each Year (tylerpaper.com); Living New Deal: Tyler Municipal Rose Garden (livingnewdeal.org); Garden Club of America: civic project 680 (Tyler rose garden) (gcamerica.org); KTRE, 2021-01-25: Mark Texas History Smith County Rose Industry (ktre.com); Tyler Morning Telegraph, 2026-05-18: 93rd Texas Rose Festival Queen Joins Community for Rose Sunday Service Celebrating New Blooms (tylerpaper.com); Wikipedia: National Register of Historic Places listings in Smith County, Texas (en.wikipedia.org). Hours and price as listed when researched; re-check. Research notes

About this plate

  • Tyler Rose Garden: a filled pin marks the place the sources tie the event to. 32.34504° N, 95.32173° W, from OpenStreetMap way/500520222.
  • Lincoln Park: a filled pin marks the place the sources tie the event to. 32.36791° N, 95.31519° W, from OpenStreetMap way/475700232.
  • Rose Stadium: a filled pin marks the place the sources tie the event to. 32.34223° N, 95.32406° W, from OpenStreetMap way/475700222.
  • Tyler Civic Theatre: a hollow pin marks where it stands today; the sources do not say the event happened there. 32.34603° N, 95.32240° W, from OpenStreetMap way/546622120.
  • Under the plate, the USGS map, 1948 (the 1:62,500 quadrangle, around Tyler). It is placed by the survey's own coordinates, moved by the mean offset of 6 street crossings that still exist; checked against them, it is off by about 11 m downtown. How the old maps are placed.
  • The faint linework is today’s map, from OpenStreetMap. How the map is made.