Terrace Park area looks ‘for ways to pay it forward’ with neighborhood investments

Don’t expect cookie-cutter, taupe-town sameness among the houses in the Terrace Park neighborhood.

Residents — longtime and relative newcomers — revel in the individuality of the homes, their neighbors and the odd business or two that dots one of Sioux Falls’ oldest communities.

And it all centers on the city park that gives the neighborhood its name and unique identity: Terrace Park.

“Terrace Park really has the most amenities of any park in the city,” said Nancy Tapken, whose family moved to the neighborhood almost 50 years ago. “It has the lake, fishing, kayaking, the pool and the Japanese Garden. No other park really has as many perks.”

Terrace Park and its band shell serve as the main base for summer concerts presented by the Sioux Falls Municipal Band. Those events draw people from around the city, sitting on the sloped hillside to listen to music drifting through the air.

Sarah Meagher and her family moved to the Terrace Park neighborhood three years ago this August, but for her it was coming home after years on the East Coast. Her parents grew up in the Terrace Park area, and as a child she would visit her grandparents who still lived there.

“It’s always been a cool, interesting place,” Meagher said.

“No two houses are the same,” said Esther Ost, who moved there almost 13 years ago.

The land for Terrace Park was acquired more than 100 years ago in the early days of the Sioux Falls parks system. It once was the home of Dr. Josiah and Hattie Phillips, early founders of the city. Fifty-two acres and the Phillips house were acquired in 1916 for $15,000.

With a $10,000 budget, the city began developing the park several years later. In its early years, it included a flower garden, clay tennis courts, a warming house for ice skaters on Covell Lake and a fenced-in pasture where buffalo, elk, coyotes and monkeys were kept in a small zoo.

Today, the park is known for the Japanese Gardens, the swimming pool that replaced an older structure in 1994 and its band shell and other attractions.

For years, the neighborhood has displayed a fierce pride in “its” park. Neighbors took the lead in improving the deteriorating Japanese Gardens. In 1989, when the city proposed tearing down the old band shell on Covell Lake’s west side, opposition resulted in a change of plans.

Sometimes, neighbors feel their park is not appreciated. Terrace Park was placed on the National Register in 2015, one year before its centennial, which did not receive due attention, Tapken said.

The park’s walkways are paved with quartzite stones, and residents have resisted efforts to replace it with concrete.

“We don’t want cement steps every place,” Ost said. “They said they can’t reset those rocks because that would be labor prohibitive.”

Her dream is to organize volunteers who are willing to donate their time and labor to help the park and neighborhood retain its individuality.

Older memories of the park remain vivid for longtime residents.

“When we first came there were paddleboats on Covell Lake, and everybody says ‘Can’t they bring them back?’” said Judy Cass, who moved to the neighborhood 22 years ago. “It was a great family thing.”

But appreciation of the past does not mean the neighborhood does not welcome change.

Meagher, for one, values the Terrace Park neighborhood’s diversity.

“One reason we chose it, it’s a neighborhood with a whole lot of people of different ethnicities,” she said. “We were concerned that our kids would see all the same houses and the same people.”

The Meaghers moved several years sooner than they had expected to when the right house unexpectedly became available. She was eight months’ pregnant at the time, so her husband flew in for a few whirlwind hours to make arrangements.

“We live right off the park, which is great, and we’re still close and walkable to downtown, so that’s great for us as a young family,” Meagher said. “We can walk down the hill to the library and walk down to Levitt (at the Falls). We have two kids, and the neighbors have kids, and the kids yell out the window to each other.”

Margaret Straley moved to the Terrace Park neighborhood 43 years ago, when she “dropped down” from North Dakota. Many Sioux Falls residents know only one or two of their neighbors, she said. That is not the case in her area.

She treasures a newspaper photo taken more than 15 years ago, when she and a young neighbor went searching for butterflies to tag and release.

“He’d run and run and run, chasing a swallowtail,” Strahly said. “Across the park, he yelled, ‘Margaret, I’ve got it,’” urging her to see his catch. Turns out, it was not a taggable butterfly, but his interest in nature and opportunity to spend time with a young neighbor still make her smile.

An overarching theme among Terrace Park residents is looking for ways to pay it forward to future generations, Tapken said.

“All the trees, all the planting, all the benches and the bricks and mortar — the trees will be around 50 years from now when I’m not,” she said.

A multiyear project involves putting a row of crab apple trees on the park’s west side. They will make a beautiful backdrop for the weddings and prom-night pictures that take place at the park, Tapken said.

People who stay in downtown Sioux Falls hotels likely don’t realize that there’s a beautiful getaway just a few blocks away, Cass said.

“The Sheraton, the Ramkota, I don’t know if they know they could walk three or four blocks and be around birds and squirrels and acorns,” she said.

Cass lives on Terrace Place, which is only one block long. From her yard, she can see the fireworks displays after Canaries baseball games at Sioux Falls Stadium. Those are spectacular, she said, but not as much as the nightly sunsets.

She did not realize how fortunate she would be in that regard when she and her husband drove by a house with a tiny “for sale” sign posted in front. It read ‘visits by appointment only,’ but a man working in the yard let Cass and her husband peek inside.

“I told my husband, this is the next house I’m living in,” she said. “And the sunsets are spectacular.”

Neighbors so far have chosen not to pursue a historic designation for the Terrace Park area, such as the nearby Cathedral District obtained 50 years ago. It does have its share of city history, they say. Consider the house at 608 N. Menlo Ave./924 W. Fourth St.

It was a hospital from 1894 to 1898 when a group of Sioux Falls citizens were inspired to form a modern facility, said Adam Nelson of the Siouxland Heritage Museums. To do so, they leased the former residence of George Seney at Fourth and Menlo, later moving it to 10th and Dakota, then to a newly constructed building at 19th and Minnesota. It all laid the foundation for what today is Sanford Health.

Seney, who was a major investor in the Queen Bee Mill, built his home in the mid-1880s. In 1889, Bishop Martin Marty, then head of the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls, called the residence his home.

Many other houses in the Terrace Park neighborhood are a century old, with others constructed in the boom after World War II.

Meagher also values nearby businesses.

“I love Ken’s Korner, the ‘North End Country Club,’” she said. “It’s under new ownership, and they bring in a lot of different music opportunities and paint nights, and the manager runs tons of benefits.”

Global Foods Grocery on Sixth Street across Menlo Avenue from Ken’s also offers the neighborhood selections such as 13 varieties of rice. That is useful where there is no walkable grocery store, Meagher said.

Residents look for ways to keep improving their neighborhood. They have sought out grants and currently are hoping to raise funds to make a sculpture of a little girl fishing, once part of the Sioux Falls Sculpture Walk, a permanent part of the park. Her cost is $32,000. Currently she is in the park on a $1,500 lease, funded through a 2024 Neighborhood Grant.

Neighbors also set up another art project this spring, working with students in the Joe Foss Alternative Program at Axtell Park. Students painted the trash receptacles that dot the park grounds.

“We work our guts out for our neighborhood,” Tapken said. “I don’t want to harp on the park, but it’s such a massive part of our neighborhood. We do a lot to maintain it and make it beautiful and keep the neighborhood safe.”

All Sioux Falls residents should take advantage of Terrace Park, Ost said. Just visit it during a Sunday night band concert to see why the neighborhood treasures it so much.

“You’ll see five or six little kids rolling down the hills,” Ost said. “They’re happy and not making any noises. Dogs are sitting by chairs. It’s one of those things that every single age can mix with and enjoy.”