Carondelet Park

Carondelet predates the United States. The settlement was founded in the eighteenth century and was eventually absorbed into St. Louis, but its name and identity survived. When St. Louis created a new generation of large public parks in the 1870s, Carondelet Park became the major park serving the city's south side.

Carondelet Park is geologically unique because it is the only original landscape in the St. Louis city parks system that was left largely unaltered. This means it preserves a pristine look at what the region’s terrain looked like before modern development.

In the early 20th century, the park was dotted with massive natural depressions and hollows caused by subterranean caves collapsing inward. Rather than fighting nature or filling the gaps with concrete, park engineers leaned into the geography. In 1913, they connected nine adjacent sinkholes. They plugged the natural drains at the bottom, reshaped the perimeter, and created Horseshoe Lake.

The park was established in 1875 and today covers nearly 180 acres. Its rolling terrain, lakes, boathouse and historic structures make it feel less like a designed urban square than a fragment of older countryside surrounded by the modern city.