Tracing its history back to 1901, Gwynns Falls Park is one of the oldest and largest designated natural park settings in the city. After a series of expansions, the most prominent of which was the acquisition of the neighboring Crimea estate in the 1940s, the combined Gywnns Falls / Leakin Park totals over 1,000 acres and is one of the largest undeveloped urban woodland areas in the country. The park also honors a former mayor, Sheppard C. Leakin, as the purchase of the Crimea estate was funded by a bequest from the mayor’s grandson, lawyer J. Wilson Leakin.
Overall, the site offers scenic hiking trails overlooking stream valleys and meadows, plus a nature center named after the mother of a Baltimore Orioles baseball player, and recreational facilities (not to mention the Crimea estate’s historic Orianda stone mansion and nearby wooden chapel).
