Loose Park

Once a Civil War battlefield and country club golf course, Loose Park has become one of Kansas City’s most cherished public spaces, rich with history and natural beauty.

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Loose Park

5200 Wornall Rd, Kansas City, MO 64112 (Map)
Opened: 1926

Loose Park, one of Kansas City’s most beloved green spaces, has a rich and layered history that predates its designation as a public park. Located at 51st Street and Wornall Road, the 75-acre site was once the scene of intense combat during the Civil War’s Battle of Westport in 1864.

At the time, the land was owned by frontiersman and trader William Bent, and it later passed through the hands of several prominent Kansas Citians, including Seth Ward, who leased the land in 1896 to the newly formed Kansas City Country Club for just $1 a year. For the next three decades, the grounds served as a golf course, overlooked by a stately clubhouse near what is now the rose garden.