Part of the park · 1940s
The entrance wall and floral nameplate
Two signatures: a fieldstone wall with the name in metal, and a bed of flowers that spells it out each summer.
The story
A low fieldstone wall carries the park's name in metal letters. The floral nameplate is older: a bed from the 1940s in which the park's name is spelled in flowers. Each late May, members of the Friends of McKennan Park gather on a Saturday morning with coffee, spades and kneelers to plant it in a new color of impatiens, about $500 of flowers a year paid from the association's Flower Fund.
Photographs: Photograph by Missy Kitzman, Sioux Falls, 2010, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
At a glance
| Floral nameplate | 1940s |
|---|---|
| Replanted | Late May, every year, by the Friends |
| Flowers | Impatiens, a new color each year, about $500 |
| Fund | Friends of McKennan Park Flower Fund |
Questions: Sioux Falls Parks and Recreation, 605-367-7060.
Keep walking
Next parts of the park.
The walk and the trees
A paved loop under elms and walnuts, replanted after Dutch elm disease took the first canopy.
The band shell
Free concerts every summer Monday since the Cosmopolitan Club built it for the nation's 150th birthday.
The wading pool
Free since 1929. The fourth pool on the site opened May 29, 2026, with a slide, sprays and a new bathhouse.