{"nrhp_refnum":"93001179","name":"Tift Park","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Bounded by N. Jefferson St., 5th Ave., 7th Ave. and Palmyra Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Albany","county":"Dougherty County","state":"GA","lat":31.59413267450006,"lon":-84.15850281729612,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1993-11-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Black","Social History","Landscape Architecture","Entertainment/Recreation","Community Planning and Development"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Tift Park is a roughly 31-acre city park in Albany, Dougherty County, Georgia, about one mile north of downtown. The city bought the land beginning in 1909 and made it Albany's first park, with a 1912 landscape plan by Otto Katzenstein.","why_significant":"The park is significant for community planning and recreation as an example of early 20th-century City Beautiful efforts, and for landscape architecture through its remaining Live Oak-lined carriage drives from Katzenstein's rustic plan. It is also significant in social history and Black ethnic heritage because the city closed and sold its swimming pool and tennis courts in 1963 to avoid desegregation.","narrative":"Tift Park is a 31-acre city park about a mile north of downtown Albany, Georgia. The city bought the land in 1909 as part of a beautification campaign and made it Albany's first park. A 1910 naming contest honored Nelson Tift, the city's founder. In 1912 Atlanta landscape architect Otto Katzenstein designed a rustic plan with native plantings, curved carriage drives, a wading pool, a ball field and playgrounds. Live Oaks planted along the drives between 1910 and 1920 and the curving line of Monroe Street still survive. The park reflects the nationwide City Beautiful movement at a local scale. It is also tied to civil rights history. In 1963, after protests by Albany's Black community against segregated public facilities, the city declared the park's 1950s swimming pool and tennis courts surplus and sold them to a private citizen to avoid integration. The period of significance runs from the 1909 land purchase to that 1963 sale.","period_of_significance":"1909 - 1963","architect_builder":"Otto Katzenstein - Landscape Architect","architectural_style":"No style","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still used as a city park with jogging trails, picnic areas, a baseball field and a recreation office. The Albany Boys Club occupies about four acres on the east side. The historic pavilion was demolished in 1986.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:42.882475-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/93001179.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/93001179/80426e8eda-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/93001179/80426e8eda-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Michael Rivera","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tift_Park_Picnic_Shelter_2.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Michael Rivera</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tift_Park_Picnic_Shelter_2.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93207876","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q49570727"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/dougherty-county/tift-park-93001179/"}