Stead Park

Stead Park is a 1.5-acre (0.61 ha) municipal park located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Northwest Washington, D.C. Among its facilities are Stead Recreation Center, located at 1625 P Street NW; a lighted basketball court; an athletic field with a 60-foot (18 m) baseball diamond; and a playground.^[1]

Stead Park
Stead Park, looking north
Location within Washington, D.C.
Type	Urban park
Location	Washington, D.C.
Coordinates	38°54′36″N 77°02′15″W
Area	1.5 acres (0.61 ha)
Created	1953
Operated by	D.C. Parks & Recreation
Status	Open all year

The park hosts public events such as Summer Movie Mania, an outdoor screening sponsored by the city government.^[2][3][4] Stead Park is also used as a practice field by the Washington Renegades RFC, the first rugby union club in the United States to recruit gay men and men of color.^[5][6]

The park and its small staff are administered by the city's Department of Parks and Recreation. Stead Park, whose property was valued at $8,659,560 in 2009,^[7] is partially funded by a private trust created by Washington architect Robert Stead (1846-1943). The park is named for Stead's wife, Mary Force Stead.^[8]

History

Stead Park playground, after 2008 renovation

The portion of the park next to P Street once held 19th-century row houses. One of them, an 1878 house at 1625 P Street, was built by Henry Hurt, a Confederate Army veteran and president of the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company. (Archaeological work during a 2008 renovation uncovered artifacts and brick foundations from that house and another at 1613 P Street.)^[9]

In 1951, work began on Stead Park, an explicitly unsegregated recreational facility. The single-story fuel sheds from the row houses at 1621, 1623, and 1625 P Street were consolidated, expanded, and topped with a second story; this structure became the park's recreation center. The park was eventually completed at a cost of $80,000^[10] (equivalent to $940,000 in 2024^[11]), and formally opened on November 13, 1953.

In 2003, plans for a four-story, multimillion-dollar gay community center to be built on a small section of the aging park sparked a dispute among Dupont Circle residents and the Washington D.C. Center for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender People. The plans were ultimately abandoned.^[12][13]

In 2008, the recreation center and playground were renovated. Work began in April and the park reopened on December 15.^[14]

In 2022, the city began a $15.4 million renovation of the recreation center, intended as a "modernization of the existing recreation facility with an addition and to bring it up to ADA standards." The new recreation center opened in Spring 2024.^[15]