John Howell Memorial Park

Cute little park nestled in a residential area. Nice park, but just for a stop-​by, not a good place to try and spend the whole day.
Two play areas, not necessarily separated by age group.

This is a great little community park in Virginia Highland off of Virginia Ave. Plenty of space to let your kids run around on the playground, run the dogs, or just enjoy a bit of greenspace not too far from Midtown.
The thing I like most about this spot is that it’s nice respite and inbetween to Midtown and the bustling parts of VaHi. It’s relatively quiet and not too overly visited or overrun with kids/​families. It’s rather well-​kept, too. The grass is neat and the overall feel of this little park is rather clean.
Really love stopping by this little park on my bike rides through the neighborhood. Glad that it’s there!

What a great little neighborhood park! With beautiful scenery, cool history, and lots of events, it’s a combination of all things wonderful.
They’ve got a great playground area with your traditional plastic playground of swings, climbing rings, etc, and the new funky playground area with crazy spinner things.
Winding through the gorgeous trees and well maintained foliage are brick paths, paved with named bricks for those who’ve contributed to the park project. Along the paths are water fountains, trash receptacles, and comfy benches. There’s also a nice plaque explaining who John Howell was and why there is a park here in his memory. I love when there are historical explanations in parks.
There’s relatively easy parking on the side streets, as long as you’re not there on a busy event weekend.
The only minus for me is the lack of bathrooms. Perhaps if this were my neighborhood park and I were walking here, that wouldn’t matter so much.
#Yelp365 — ³⁴⁵⁄₃₆₅

A little gem in the Virginia Highlands where you can walk your dog, lay in the sun, play volleyball, have fun on the playground or to just enjoy Atlanta’s recent great weather. There are park benches throughout, as well as a good amount of grass… so you can bring a towel and soak in some rays. The landscaping is also well maintained.
Overall…this is one of my favorite places to get away from the stress of life. My pup is also a fan.

What a lovely space — only reason it’s 4 instead of 5 stars is because of the annoying arboreal policy that dictates that no limbs be cut — so instead they keep falling and majorly injuring little people!
Anyway, my most recent experience was with some thing they had Tuesday night (something like ‘National Go Out and Eat” night). We busted ass to get there on time since we were coming from somewhere else. I dropped María and Teci off there and then drove back to the house with Maggie (aka ‘Betty’) to change out of my fancy work duds into something more appropriate for the 95+ degree heat and humidity.
It was hot as hell. Walking to the park from our home with Betty, we were remarking on how nice it would be if the heat broke and we got «A little shower»; a «mist», perhaps. Lo and behold, a block away from our house, we get a few scattered drops — «Yea,» we brayed. Perhaps a little unsettling for the folks at the Park (Whole Foods had laid out a spread), but what’s a little cooling H2O, right?
Much like in «The Sorcerer’s Apprentice», the drops grew to rain, then sheets of water, then monsoon-​like-​we-​live-​in-​Bangladesh-​on-​the-​side-​of-​the-​Himalayas-​and-​our-​village-​is-​being-​washed-​away-​again-​for-​the-​millionth-​time-​because-​we-​keep-​building-​in-​the-​path-​of-​a-​flooding-​river rain. I mean, if there were farm animals, they would have floated away.
We were totally soaked — we couldn’t see because of the water in our faces. Traffic was stopping, cars were crashing, dogs and cats were living together.
I got to the Park, and it was still lovely. I got (soggy) food, met some nice people, and re-​confirmed our decision to move intown.

Must agree with you all. What a wonderful use of City green-​space. Great people around and perfect for the kids.

I love you. You are always freshly shorn, give me space to stretch out, and provide pockets of warmth on beautiful spring days. You let my dog run free, provide bags for pickup, and have a special water fountain just for B dawg. I love to come to you and play frisbee golf while drinking beer and you never judge me for it. You have great equipment and were made to be ecologically friendly. Your adornments are sculpturaly beautiful and my nephew loves to play on them. His favorite thing about you is your fire engine. Thank you for being there for me.

I adore this neighborhood park. Aside from being a daily destination for Walking Off The Work Day and assorted I Dealt With Bureaucracy And Therefore Am Primed for Homicide outings, it serves me extremely well, no matter the occasion.
I’m generally not in the mood to deal with the hordes at Piedmont Park, and John Howell Memorial Park is the perfect, low key solution.
Here’s a partial listing of all the ways I’ve taken advantage of it:
— Picnics. The grass is well kept and never gets too buggy. It’s perfect for setting out a nice spread and not having too many uninvited beasts. There’s a canopy of beautiful tall trees to provide shade and backrests. Waste receptacles are nearby. A couple of times, I’ve even seen people show up with their own picnic tables, chairs, and grills.
— Absentminded meandering. There are brick pathways and other soft walkways that let you wander without worry, there’s nothing to trip over and there’s no places for nutjobs to hide.
— Fierce frisbee. The field here is remarkably free of divots, bumps, and protruding abnormalities. I declare it an ankle-​safe zone. I often run into other disc throwing enthusiasts and there’s plenty of room for everyone [unless you’re in one of those Ultimate Frisbee leagues].
— Grassy Bocce. Again, because of the relatively smooth surface and the wide playing area, it’s perfect for a good game of bocce. There are sporadic tiny hills and mulch-​covered spots you can incorporate into your game to make it more interesting.
— Bubble Making. If you ever want to make massive bubbles all by yourself and then grow startled at the spontaneous presence of Children of the Corn, this is the place. I swear, the kids come out of nowhere and start trying to pop my bubbles. I’m like the Pied Piper up in this piece.
— Making Myself Sick on The Insane Spinner Thing. The playground here is awesome. It’s nothing like the playgrounds I grew up with. For one thing, the ground is covered in that rubber mulch stuff, making it incredibly delicious on your joints when you plummet from the monkey bars. It’s also nice for jogging.
There’s the usual fare: swings, slides, jungle gym, but then they have a couple of sculptural, cool things that make you throw up. I don’t know their names, but they involve spinning.
— Volleyball in a Bikini, Almost Year-​Round. They have a little beach volleyball court set up, complete with sand, sand bags, tall referee chairs, and almost naked people. It’s pretty rad. I’ve even spotted a dude with a metal detector and arm floaties [not kidding] when the games are over.
— Hanging Out With Well Behaved Dogs. People bring their unleashed dogs to play and I’ve never encountered a disobedient or annoying dog. I’m pretty sure the dogs that come here are way better than other dogs. Dog owners are courteous and always pick up after their dogs. There’s several stations set up for dog owners, with complimentary waste bags.
— Stuff I Can’t Mention.
+ + +
The only thing John Howell isn’t really very good for? Boomerangs. But after 52 tries to dislodge our boomerang from the tree branch, we realized the soccer/​softball field across the street is better equipped [and free of all foliage] to handle that. It’s freely available on the weekends.
John Howell isn’t huge, by any means [something like 2 acres], but it’s well planned out, well maintained, and relatively low-​traffic. That’s more than I can say for the entire city of Atlanta. I just want to kiss it.