Part of the park · 1920s
The sunken garden
A stone-walled formal garden below the band shell, planted each year in annuals around a small fountain.
The story
The 1984 nomination called it a sunken Roman garden; the city calls it the Mediterranean Sunken Garden. Postcard publishers sold it for decades, and the clipped hedges and the statue at the fountain on those cards are the ones park staff planted and shaped by hand each spring, a practice the city still keeps.
There were formal flower beds at McKennan from the park's first years. The first greenhouses went up in the park in 1920 and grew the beds' flowers until the 1960s, when the greenhouse was torn down. A hundred roses were planted in 1930. The Friends' history counts the garden as one of only two formal gardens in the city.
It was remodeled in 1996 and is the park's wedding venue. The city books ceremonies through Parks and Recreation.
Photographs: Photograph by Missy Kitzman, Sioux Falls, 2010, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Linen-era postcard, about 1930 to 1950, publisher unknown.
At a glance
| Laid out | 1920s |
|---|---|
| Remodeled | 1996 |
| Style | A sunken Roman garden, in the words of the 1984 nomination |
| Weddings | Booked through Parks and Recreation, 605-367-7060 |
| Rules | Stay off the walls and out of the fountain |
| Where | South end, below the band shell |
Questions: Sioux Falls Parks and Recreation, 605-367-7060.
Keep walking
Next parts of the park.
The band shell
Free concerts every summer Monday since the Cosmopolitan Club built it for the nation's 150th birthday.
Pillars of the Nation
Stone from all forty-eight states, stacked at the 26th Street entrance while the war came on.
The wading pool
Free since 1929. The fourth pool on the site opened May 29, 2026, with a slide, sprays and a new bathhouse.