Utica Parks and Parkway Historic District

Utica's southeastern edge is occupied by a park and parkway system of about 565 acres of parkland joined by five miles of road. Memorial Parkway begins at Genesee Street as a divided boulevard with a planted median, then runs east past three parks: Roscoe Conkling Park, T. R. Proctor Park and F. T. Proctor Park. Olmsted Brothers Landscape Associates designed the system between 1908 and 1914. Roscoe Conkling Park opened in 1909 and is the largest, with a wooded hillside, a ski slope, a golf course and a zoo. T. R. Proctor Park has a swimming pool and athletic fields, while F. T. Proctor Park has open fields and woodland paths. Three memorials stand in the median: the von Steuben monument, the Swann Fountain and the Spanish-American War statue. Works Progress Administration work in the late 1930s added stone structures that respected the original plan. It is the only built element of the Olmsted firm's city plan, and its layout remains largely intact despite lost elms and later additions.