Sylvania Community Park

Dedication

1926

Size

29.22 acres

Additional amenities

Backstop
Basketball court
Bench
Bike rack
Bleachers
Drinking fountain
Electrical box
Grill
Park lighting
Parking lot
Playground
Restroom
Shelter
Softball/baseball field
Stand-alone swing
Table
Tennis court
Trash receptacle
Volleyball court

Fun facts

Sylvania Community Park hosts Riverside Community Center, which is tucked inside an Eastern Cross Timbers woodland. Walk the park and you will find post oaks that may have been young trees in 1887 when James Welch purchased the property at a sheriff's sale for less than $50.

Recreation

Recreational highlights of the park include a softball/baseball field, tennis courts, and a playground within walking distance of nearby neighborhoods. A mile of cement walking trail provides great opportunities for neighbors to participate in the Blue Zone Project under the shade of towering post oaks.

History

James Welch purchased forty acres of the A. McLemore Survey at a sheriff’s sale for $45.25 in 1887. In 1927, his heirs sold the same parcel to the city for $23,376. Located in the Riverside area of east Fort Worth, the park received its name from the nearby post office. During the Depression, the park received numerous improvements with the assistance of New Deal funding. The recreation department received funding for the construction of a swimming pool which first opened in the summer of 1939. The Riverside Recreation Center was opened in the park in 1955 as part of the recreation department’s goal of placing recreation centers around the city. The building was designed by Herman Cox and constructed by Paschall Sanders Construction Company.

Geology

The geology of the site is comprised of terrace deposits. Ancient Pleistocene and Holocene aged rivers cut through older Cretaceous Period soils and deposited sand, silt, clay and gravel resulting in stream terraces. Terraces form when a river changes course, abandoning the previous floodplain and creating a new channel.

Soils

The park's soil falls under the Bastsil series, which consists of very deep, well drained soils derived from sandstone in an alluvium (river) setting.

Ecology

The park sits on classic Eastern Cross Timbers sandy soils. Less than 100 acres of undisturbed, original Eastern Cross Timbers woodlands remain in Fort Worth. Sylvania Park hosts the characteristic trees of this habitat: post oak (Quercus stellata) and blackjack oak (Quercus marilandica). Currently, the historic understory vegetation is absent from this park. Typical understory species of Eastern Cross Timbers include little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), splitbeard bluestem (Andropogon ternarius), purtpletop (Tridens flavus), common yarrow (Achillea millefolium), prairie agalinis (Agalinis heterophylla), butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), Texas greeneyes (Berlandiera betonicifolia) and greenbrier (Smilax bona-nox). Learn about more Cross Timbers plants.

Historically, the Eastern Cross Timbers was a dense, narrow strip of woodland that ran from the Brazos River north to the Red River (I-35 roughly parallels the woodlands). The woods had a dense undertory of vegetation that acted as a barrier, slowing westward settlement into the Fort Worth Prairie and Western Cross Timbers ecoregions.

Small pocket prairies, sometimes referred to as glades, are interspersed in openings where the soil changes and the tree canopy is thin; allowing more light to reach the ground. Learn more about the Cross Timbers ecoregion.

Species of note observed at Sylvania Park include chipping sparrow, black-bellied whistling duck, gray fox, orange sulphur, variegated fritillary, red admiral, Missouri violet, and eastern woodland sedge.

View animal, plant and insect species observed at Sylvania Community Park and make some of your own observations through iNaturalist. See link under the "Related information" Section.

Reserve this park on ActiveNet