Rhodius Park

This park is ok. It is about 25 acres and pretty spread out. There is a small park lot and tons of street parking available. This is an historic park that dates back to 1924. The park is named after George Rhodius Jr, the son of German immigrants that left an endowment to the Parks Department after his death in 1909. The park has two playgrounds, located on opposite ends of the park. The smaller one is by the parking lot and has an accessible jungle gym with slides, a set of traditional swings and a picnic table. This area is lined with wood chips. The other playground area, that is near the school is larger and the better of the two. It is lined with plastic tiles and has a large set of traditional swings there. There is a huge jungle gym with a bunch of bridges and a few slides. There is also a musical gazebo that kids can play with some music making instruments. It is nothing really special though. So, don't set you hopes too high on this one.The park has about 4 baseball diamonds that have seen better days. The fields are not well maintained and could probably only serve as a field for a preschoolers pick up game. It is such a large and spread out park that there is green space available where you can do field sports such as soccer or football, play catch, fly a kite, or have a picnic.There are three decent tennis courts that are lighted at the park and a field hockey court right next to them. The park also has two shelters with a bunch of picnic tables under them, but I did not see any grills nearby. The park is one of the few Indianapolis parks that has a pool. I can during the off season when it was also packed away for the winter, but it looks like a decent complex. The pool is housed in the park's family center and you can find a fitness center, youth game room, large community room, a dance studio, arts and crafts area, conference room, full kitchen a sensory room and a gym.There is a decent paved trail that goes around the park and is between a mile and a half mile. It can be used for running, walking, biking, or just strolling.This is a decent old school park. It has a lot to offer and does not get as packed as other parks. Personally, I am more of a modern playground type of guy, but this still works. There are much worst parks that you can visit.

Impressive! This is a great park for kids of all ages! This park has something for toddlers and older children. I enjoyed the shelter that directly across from a children's play area and there is so much grass to just run free. I did see that there is an Indy parks community center on site of this park and I also saw a baseball diamond. There are multiple play areas for children. It's a great park.

On this cold rainy afternoon we checked out the sensory room inside of the park building. The kids (2 and 7) had lots of fun burning off some energy. It's not a huge, fancy room but plenty to do for an hour or two. (See pictures.) We had a little trouble trying to find out where to park and which door to use. (Use the door next to the front entrance of the school and park in the big parking lot across the street.) The building also had a recreation room with some game tables. Public restrooms were available I wouldn't even have known about this place if it wasn't for the Indy With Kids website (a terrific resource).Update November 2019: Hours on the Indy with Kids website are not correct anymore. See my photo of hours.

This mature park was purchased by the Indy Parks Commissioners way back in 1913 from George Rhodius. The park, 25 acres in size, has School #49 on the east end which works with the Parks Department to coordinate use of the facilities.The park has two playgrounds: the west end one is smaller but shaded; the Cascella playground appears to be newer and has the padded squares for kids to run on instead of rough and uneven ground.Next to the Cascella playground is the pool which is quite large. There appears to be a smaller pool area on the north side of the main pool that I suspect is for smaller kids.The park hosts a number of baseball diamonds, some tennis courts, and a shelter on the west end. I have also read that there is an indoor play area for children who are sensory sensitive. Information about hours and admissions can be obtained through contacting Indy Parks.My negatives were that there didn't appear to be any onsite parking lots on the north or south sides of the park, though street parking was free. I didn't notice any parking on the west end either, but the original map of the park shows that there is supposed to be. On the east end, there is some parking at the school, but I am not aware of what the restrictions are for using their lot. A lot of the park is also located below street level, so drainage could be a problem for the playgrounds which appeared wet on my visit.Review #509