Gardner Park

This park has a lot of potential. It is not a very well visited park. I saw a few people come there while I was there, but they did not stay long. It has a modest, but adequate parking lot for visitors to park. You will find a couple of very nice full basketball courts in the front of the park. The court is well paved and the rims can be raised and lowered. Even I could dunk on them. just behind the basketball courts, are two tennis courts. They are in pretty good shape too. The park is home to two shelters. They are in fair condition, but have a very limited amount of picnic tables under them. There are also grills just outside of the shelters. The park features a decent playground area that is on a bed of wood chips. The area has benches on its perimeter for caregivers to sit and watch their littles. The playgrounds equipment includes a bank of traditional/infant swings with a nest saucer swing, a small and medium jungle gym with slides, bridges, tunnels, and a sliding pole. a large pebble bridge setup with a climbing wall and Jacobs ladder, and a spinning net climber. The equipment is in pretty good shape. Other park amenities include a nice paved trail and a decent path of green space that is suitable for activities such a picnic, playing catch, flying a kite, a football or soccer game. The park is poorly maintained, or I caught it on a bad day. There was trash all over the place, trash cans were knocked over. On a positive note, the grass was cut.This is a nice park to visit, if you are in the area. They do not have any restrooms, but they have just about eveything else that I look for in a park. I would not label it a destination park, but still worthy of being a place that you spend some time.

First time visiting this with my 3 and 4 year olds. Super clean park. One broken slide but it's closed off. It's in a quiet area and has a huge area to play or run in also. The basketball court seems good and kids were playing on it. My kids loves how different it is from other parks and how much things there were to climb and jump off of. Definitely a nice park and so close to where we live. The giant merry go round was also a huge hit.

On my weekday visit, I was impressed with the condition of the park. The basketball and tennis courts were in great condition. And like the large playground, located close to the parking area. There is a large open area of the park as well as a number of mature shade trees near the playground. The playground had many components that were kid friendly and colorful.Note that there is a memorial near the basketball courts which are named for a local young man who passed away at a young age during a high school game (John Stewart). Review #702

Gardner Park is practically the definition of a small, urban park. Sitting on East 46th Street between Shadeland and Kitley Avenues, this 9 acre park is larger than it appears to be as you drive by it. Gardner Park offers three picnic shelters that can be rented, both tennis and basketball courts, a playground for young children, and a nicely paved trail that covers pretty much the entire park and is used by young and old alike as evidenced by my visit to the park for a geocaching trip earlier today. There is also an area for a softball field and the Indy Parks website lists a proposed soccer field - admittedly, I can't imagine this ever happening as smaller, urban parks like this one seldom, if ever, get the investment like the bigger parks. In fact, it was hard not to notice that while this little park was more of a gem than I expected it was remarkably run down with trash strewn in the parking lot and kids, obviously not in school, playing basketball. The park once was plentiful with trees, but this area of the city in which I live has also seen its share of dying trees that are chopped down and never replaced. In short, Gardner Park feels as neglected as is much of the city's Eastside. As is true for all city parks, Gardner Park is a dawn-to-dusk park and this park is noted as having some issues with drugs within the park boundaries but during daylight hours it's a solid option for those within this Indy/Lawrence area. In terms of wheelchair access, Gardner has a smallish parking lot with a curb cut that goes to both the play areas, basketball areas and offers access to the actual trail. While a child in a wheelchair would likely struggle in the actual play area, one must give kudos to Indy Parks as pretty much every feature of the park can be accessed by a paved trail. Heck, not even Broad Ripple Park can actually say that. Certainly not a destination park, Gardner Park is a decent neighborhood park best utilized during daytime hours that deserves better upkeep than it gets.

Fun playground. Lots of large trees with shade. Two picnic shelters, tennis and basketball courts.