BALTIMORE – Baltimore City will soon welcome its first major public park in more than a century, following a local community group’s purchase of a 20-acre site from Baltimore Country Club by the Roland Park Community Foundation (RPCF). The newly named Hillside Park, located along Falls Road across from Poly and Western high schools, will open to the public immediately and be accessible daily from dawn to dusk, in keeping with city park standards.
“Hillside Park is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create something enduring and essential for Baltimore City,” said Mary Page Michel, RPCF chair. “Hillside Park is about access, equity, and honoring nature—a space that reflects the values of our city and invites everyone to enjoy it.”
Inspired by the legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of American landscape architecture and famously known for creating New York City’s Central Park and Prospect Park, Hillside Park will be guided by the principles of inclusion, beauty, and access to nature for all. Ensuring that park space was welcoming to everyone was a major tenet of Olmsted’s designs. At the turn of the century, the Olmsted firm, and specifically his son Frederick Olmsted, Jr., was instrumental in the layout and development of the neighborhood surrounding the current area to be known as Hillside Park.
Following today’s announcement, a Request for Proposal will be issued to hire a landscape architect to lead a robust public input phase. The design created in 2008 by Stone Hill Design will be the starting point for the new plan, the goal of which is to determine the best ways to create a welcoming, accessible, safe, fun, and affordable public space. Park design will feature passive and active areas- walking paths, open vistas, a playground, and multi-use recreational space.
Settlement on the park occurred on Monday July 7, 2025, marking the culmination of a 25-year effort led by RPCF to acquire the property.
“By the scope of its fundraising and the perseverance of a dedicated core, this was a collective effort that had all the attributes of a mission,” said Michel. “Hillside Park is a great example of radical kindness and a commitment to preserving green space in Baltimore. We are grateful for the outpouring of support from the community, our donors, countless others who advised us, and the leadership of our team, who all came together to pull off what I think is a miracle. The pandemic showed us all the value of public green spaces and access to nature. This purchase was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enhance green space in Baltimore City and protect it as a place to be experienced and enjoyed by the public forever.”
The last public park of a large size to be created in Baltimore is believed to be Patterson Park in 1860.
Michel said that over the past four years the acquisition funds were raised from 876 donors representing 42 Baltimore City communities, 30 different neighborhoods in Maryland, and 28 states. The community will next raise a maintenance endowment to care for the property in perpetuity.
Michel noted that in the coming months, in addition to continued fundraising, a steering group for Hillside Park will be formed, to include key stakeholders committed to the mission and management of the park.