Flo Ware Park is named for an African American community activist in 1982.

  • By Mary T. Henry
  • Posted 8/22/2001
  • HistoryLink.org Essay 3504
See Additional Media

In 1982, Flo Ware Park is named for an African American community activist. Located on the southeast corner of 28th Avenue S and S Jackson Street, it is a miniature park of 21,600 square feet. Florasina Ware (1912-1981) was the quintessential activist, known in Seattle for raising a strong voice on behalf of children, the elderly, and the poor. When Ms. Ware died in 1981, there was an overwhelming feeling in the community that she be memorialized. The city purchased the land in 1969 for $46,000 wih Forward Thrust funds. William Talley is the landscape architect.

An undulating concrete wall surrounds a sand bed and there are swings, slides, climbers, a merry-go-round, and a basketball hoop for the neighborhood children. In 2001, the Leschi neighborhood began discussions about redesigning the park because of unwelcome activities there.


Sources:

Mary T. Henry, Tribute: Seattle Public Places Named for Black People (Seattle: Statice Press, 1997).


Licensing: This essay is licensed under a Creative Commons license that encourages reproduction with attribution. Credit should be given to both HistoryLink.org and to the author, and sources must be included with any reproduction. Click the icon for more info. Please note that this Creative Commons license applies to text only, and not to images. For more information regarding individual photos or images, please contact the source noted in the image credit.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
Major Support for HistoryLink.org Provided By: The State of Washington | Patsy Bullitt Collins | Paul G. Allen Family Foundation | Museum Of History & Industry | 4Culture (King County Lodging Tax Revenue) | City of Seattle | City of Bellevue | City of Tacoma | King County | The Peach Foundation | Microsoft Corporation, Other Public and Private Sponsors and Visitors Like You