Written by Marian Inabinett, Curator of Collections at the High Point Museum

Historical Marker
Dedicated – September 24, 2022
Historical Marker Location – Murray Street and Brooks Avenue (at lower entrance to park)

Marker Text - Washington Terrace Park, formerly known as the Municipal Colored Park, opened June 10, 1938, to serve the African American citizens of High Point. Funds granted through the Federal New Deal Works Progress Administration were used to build a pavilion, bath house, showers and dressing rooms, plus a pool, tennis courts, ball fields and picnic areas over almost 30 acres. The cost for building the park was $116,000, and it was considered one of the finest Negro/African American parks in the country. During the park’s days of segregation African Americans from near and far visited the park by the bus loads to enjoy the recreational amenities.

Right photograph: A group of young swimmers enjoying the pool in 1959.
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The start of the Great Depression in 1929 put a halt to High Point’s decade of prosperity. Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the 1932 United States Presidential election, promising the American people a “new deal” to restore the economy and put people back to work. The majority of New Deal expenditures went towards building, and High Point city leaders saw an opportunity to gain public facilities which they had been reluctant to fund in the past.
One of these New Deal projects in High Point was the Municipal Colored Park, now called Washington Terrace Park.

Southern cities that accepted federal monies were required to construct similar facilities to provide for African Americans who were excluded from public parks and buildings during this era of enforced racial segregation by law.

Through other New Deal funds, the City of High Point had built and opened City Lake Park for white citizens by 1935 and had to develop a separate public recreation facility for High Point’s African American community. Though several sites were suggested for a recreation center, no park development was realized until 1935 when an offer of 27 acres of land formerly part of the High Point Normal and Industrial School farm gave the City a satisfactory location. The park for High Point’s African American citizens would be built at the eastern end of the thriving, segregated business district of East Washington Street in an area convenient to surrounding neighborhoods.

The plan submitted to the Works Progress Administration earned a grant of $100,000 to start work early in 1937, and the park opened on June 10, 1938. Designed by noted landscape architect R.D. Tillson, the Municipal Colored Park had numerous amenities and stylish, modern facilities. Substantial renovations occurred in the 1960s and again in recent decades. It became known as Washington Terrace Park in 1953.

The marker recognizes the park’s central importance to High Point’s African American community for many decades. Washington Terrace Park is now one of the largest of the 38 recreational parks operated by the City of High Point. It includes a community center, performance stage, pool and waterslide, football and baseball fields, a playground, and picnic shelters.