Boise’s Julia Davis Park, bandshell and pond included, still stands out today

“Improvement Starts in Julia Davis Park,” reported the Statesman in March 1926. “In a few days the city will move the bandstand from Columbia Park, do some repairing and painting, and set it up in Julia Davis for use of the municipal band this season.”

A big step in the development of Julia Davis Park came in May 1926, when the city dump was moved from the park across the river to the edge of the city’s airport on the island that is now the campus of Boise State University.

That month saw “Park Commissioner Aveline on the Warpath,” because someone had been riding a horse on the grass at Julia Davis. “If it continues someone is going to get hurt,” he said, but he did not specify how or by whom. In June that year, Commissioner Aveline was quoted again: “We don’t mind rubbish if people will be careless and leave it. We can pick that up and dispose of it quickly, but grass we have to grow, and we can’t do it overnight. Ice cream freezers are a special problem because they are packed with a mixture of salt and ice, and salt is death to green grass.”

“Park No Speedway,” noted the Statesman on June 24, 1926, in reporting six arrests for speeding in Julia Davis Park just the night before.

In May 1928, Mayor Walter Hansen announced that the framework of a new bandshell had just been completed, and that in accordance with their contract, the carpenters were to be paid the first installment.

In December that year, “The addition of the band shell last summer was a great asset. Band concerts drew great crowds which taxed the park almost to its full capacity.”

Further reported the Statesman: “Boise’s Beauty Keeps on Growing. Out of sloughs and gravel bars has come Julia Davis Park, each year increasing in favor and amazing charm.” And, “Parks of City Grow in Worth as Years Pass. There is still much detail work to be done in Julia Davis Park before it can be called a finished product. In the first place the park is far too small, even for present needs. The people of Boise and our neighbors as well, are enjoying the park more and more each year, and it is becoming very popular as a place of recreation. The addition of the band shell last summer was a great asset. Band concerts drew great crowds which taxed the park almost to its full capacity.”

(Boise is blessed to still have the historic Gene Harris Bandshell after a fire damaged it on April 23, 2018.)

“Hundreds of cars which carried the people there found no parking space, except in the narrow driveways, which at times became congested, causing great inconvenience and annoyance to the patrons. The park board hopes to secure some additional ground.”

The Great Depression was well underway in April 1933, but Julia Davis Park was able to secure federal funding from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), founded in 1932, to build a lake and a canal system for boating. Sweeping changes were made to the shoreline of the boating lagoon in 1936, “to make it more picturesque.” Thanks to the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, 100 unemployed men were put to work in Julia Davis Park that spring.

And 112 years later, Boise is still proud of its first park.

This story was originally published October 25, 2019 at 5:41 PM with the headline "Boise’s Julia Davis Park, bandshell and pond included, still stands out today."