Enhancements include an updated gym, community center and pool, a new stage for cultural performances, a baseball field and outdoor fountain, and community and public art features. The foundation has granted a total of $3 million to Emancipation Park including a $2 million grant in 2012 to renovate the existing historic pool house and shade structures and, in 2017, committed another $1 million to the park’s conservancy to further programming and operations matching a $250,000 challenge grant by H-E-B.
The park was officially re-dedicated with a public ceremony of events on June 17, 2017. In partnership with HPARD, Emancipation Park Conservancy schedules and produces programs in the park that serve the community.
Information on page is current as of January 28, 2025. Lifetime gift total of $4,960,100 may include other gifts not mentioned in the web copy above.
Emancipation Park ConservancyNews & Press
- Kinders invest $122M in the Black Community —Defender
- Three Houston Parks Team Up To Bring Back Jazzy Sundays In The Parks —Press Release
- Meet the couple behind Houston’s $281M transformation through new park amenities and green spaces —Houston Chronicle
- Mavis Staples to headline rescheduled free concert series in Houston parks —Houston Chronicle Preview
- How Greening Strategies Are Displacing Minorities in Post-Harvey Houston —The Nature of Cities
- Bayou City Music Series debuts in Spring 2018 at Discovery Green, Emancipation Park, and Buffalo Bayou Park —Blog Post
- The Rededication of Historic Emancipation Park —Blog Post
- Houston’s green revolution sets free the blossom of Emancipation Park —Houston Chronicle
- Emancipation: New Building and Landscape Raises Profile of Houston’s Oldest Park —Off Cite
- Houston’s Oldest Park Debuts Its $33.6 Million Renovation —Houstonia Magazine
- Local park conservancy to get $2M from Kinder Foundation, H-E-B, endowment —Houston Business Journal
- Emancipation Park project gets additional $2 million —Houston Chronicle
- The Emancipation Park Conservancy Receives Multi-Year Financial Commitment from the Kinder Foundation and Houston Endowment —Press Release
- The time to start building Houston 2036 is now —Houston Chronicle
- Third Ward Plan —Houston Chronicle
- The Emancipation Park project marks a special place in the celebration of Juneteenth —Houston Chronicle