JaxParks

Criswell Park is located adjacent to Hyde Park Elementary School in the Lake Shore area of southwest Jacksonville. After the school was built in 1950, Duval County leased six acres of the school property in 1956 for use as a public playground, which by 1966 had been expanded to eleven acres and named Criswell Playground. The park is named for former Duval County Juvenile Court Judge Walter Scott Criswell (1888-1962). For decades he worked tirelessly for the city’s youth as founder and executive director of the Boys Home and later the Boy Service Council. He also served in many other capacities, such as president of the Juvenile Judges Association of Florida and on the Florida Crippled Children’s Commission. The park is home to the Lakeshore Athletic Association, which runs one of the city’s most successful youth athletic programs and has partnered with the city in developing and maintaining the park.