Lincoln Park

Front inscription

From 1901 to 1905, this was a segregated park for African Americans, opened by the Columbia Electric Street Railway Company. Development in this part of Columbia, then known as “the highlands,” began in the 1890s with the extension of rail service from downtown. Following complaints from white riders traveling to nearby Hyatt Park, the company created Lincoln Park as part of its efforts to segregate the previously integrated rail line to the highlands.

Reverse inscription

Black residents from across Columbia visited Lincoln Park for walks, picnics, musical performances, and camp meetings. Approx. 4,000 people attended the park’s formal opening in July 1901. It originally had an auditorium and outdoor theater. By 1903, Lincoln Park had been combined with Hyatt Park for the use of whites. In 1905, a Virginia-based firm bought 100 acres of surrounding land to develop the whites-only Park Place neighborhood and formally renamed this “Lake Park.”