Wilder Park

Great park to walk around and enjoy the day. Home of the Wilder Mansion, Lazzardo Museum, Elmhurst Art Museum and Elmhurst Library. The conservatory is also located here and has a beautiful gazebo for weddings in the flower gardens.
There’s so much to see
Nice playground for children.

Love this beautiful park! Great location for a wedding too! As an officiant, one of my favorite locations to perform a wedding. :)

Wonderfully manicured park in Elmhurst! This is a great local spot that’s beautiful in the spring. Whether you’re in the mood for a picnic, to walk the trail or just enjoy some greenery, it’s worth checking out.
I was here for Elmhurst’s Art in the Park fest this year and it was the ideal location for such an event! The paved walkways make it convenient to walk and visit the vendors set up along the trail in the grass. The eating area and entertainment were set up in the grass with plenty of space to enjoy. An added bonus is the Wilder Mansion right on the grounds. Ideal situation when utilizing for an event!
The flowers are gorgeous in the spring time. There are playgrounds for the kiddos so bringing them along is always a nice option as well. Personally, I love that it’s conveniently close to the city center where you can grab a bite to eat and bring it over to the park to enjoy. Nice little slice of Elmhurst if you ask me.

This is a great park. Very well manicured, lots of green space, nice trails, picnic tables, playgrounds, right near city center so you can grab some food and head over here to eat in the sun. Everything you want in a park.

This park is perfect. The playground has lots of options and plenty of room for several kids to play on. There are picnic tables, benches, and plenty of space to lay on a blanket on the grass or play football or bocce ball with kids or friends or just listen to the cicadas. A slice of heaven in the city.

If I were ever to propose to someone, I might travel to Elmhurst in springtime when the magnolia trees are in full bloom at Wilder Park and drop to one knee there. The pink magnolias are simply gorgeous and the numerous magnolia trees at this park turn it into a romantic wonder of beauty.
Technically, I’m not sure if the pink magnolia trees are part of Wilder Park or the Conservatory, but since the trees are outdoors, I’m considering them to be part of the park. If you go to the southwest end of the park, the magnolias next to the conservatory by West Church Street. There’s a small garden courtyard there too with a Peace memorial in the center. Every spring I make it a point to stroll around the area spending hours there with my camera, composing shots, and stopping long enough to sit and soak in the beauty of spring.
I’ve usually gone to see the magnolias on a weekday after work. I can catch the Metra into Elmhurst and then walk a few blocks southwest to the park. There aren’t many people around at that time, so it’s usually peaceful and serene with plenty of time for reflection and wonderment at the awe of creation. If you know anything about magnolias, they have a relatively short blooming time before the flower pedals start to fall, carpeting the ground around them in pink, white, and brown. The blooming season seems to be dependent on the weather, so you’ll have to check frequently mid– to late-​spring in order to catch the trees in all their glory.
Aside from that, Wilder Park is a nice suburban park with a playground area for kids, plenty of open, grassy areas for running or relaxing, and plenty of shade trees. The crab apple trees are quite beautiful in the Spring too. I’ve also attended the «Elmhurst Art in the Park» event in May which is a decent-​sized, juried art show that attracts many artists from the Chicagoland area and beyond. If you love outdoor art fairs as much as I do, put this one on your list to see.
So take a trip to Wilder Park sometime, stroll around, and enjoy the outdoors. Take a camera and capture a few blooms or two. And if you have a significant other who asks if you want to visit this park in the springtime, just say, «I do.»

This public park Yogi deems WP the perfect place to plop your pic-​a-​nic basket and bask in the shade of plentiful pines with your boo-​boo bear.
On this particularly beautiful Elmhurst afternoon, the gentleman caller and I decided to heed the ranger warnings and NOT feed the bears… though we did pack a few morsels (care of Zenwich) for ourselves. We eyed several shaded spots on the somewhat sprawling Wilder Park lawn and decided upon a pretty central one amidst a gaggle of very climbable ginkos. With water fountains, horseshoe area, bike trails, art museum, Wilder mansion, picnic tables, lapidary art museum, Wilder Park playground, Wedding photo-​shoot, tennis courts, and the cleanest, nicest public park bathrooms I have ever seen just a stone’s throw away.
I had a handy blanket in my car to make our home-​base with, so we set up shop, ate our sammies, cloud watched, napped, joked and literally shot the breeze for what seemed like hours… and then, as the sun started to set, we realized that it actually had been hours (3.5) and that we’d pretty much just wasted the day away in Wilder Park.
Wonderfully wasted, that is.
The only thing that could’ve made the day any more glorious would have been a bit more breeze so we could’ve taken advantage of the giant kites I’d come prepared with.
Oh well.
Till we meet again, WP.