Depot Park

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Located in downtown Gainesville, Depot Park is the most visited and most visible public space in Gainesville.  This signature city park strives to engage and partner with local businesses, organizations, and clubs in order to strengthen community bonds and foster the city’s economic vitality.

This 32-acre park hosts a variety of engaging programs and fun-filled events aimed to be inclusive and welcoming to our neighbors.  Past events include Figure on Diversity – a figure drawing drop-in program that elevated all body types. Enjoy drum circles, movies on the lawn, yoga, and kids’ games and activities.

Depot Park’s signature event is the annual “Sparks in the Park” on New Year’s Eve.  This event draws thousands of people from across the area who bring their lawn chairs and blankets to enjoy a kids’ dance party on the hill, food trucks, and the fantastic fireworks display.  To add to this event, the park is lit up in holiday lights starting in November and extending through December.

Open daily, Depot Park features focal points that tell the story of Gainesville. From the Timucua people who inhabited our area to the depot train station, the park and playground highlight our natural areas like the Blue Grotto splash pad and water-play area.  Enjoy the shade at the picnic tables in the pavilion which can be rented for birthday parties or fun social gatherings.  You can experience our storm water park and conservation area that is filled with wildlife, wetlands, and upland plantings.  Set up lawn chairs or spread a blanket to enjoy a beautiful day on the lawn.  Play games like Frisbee or spike ball on our grassy, open, green spaces.

Playing in our park can stir up an appetite!  You can pay a visit to Depot Station for a variety of refreshing drinks and tasty food options to quench your thirst and hunger.

Park Hours:

  • Children’s play area: 7 am to Sunset
  • Conservation area: 7 am to Sunset
  • Restrooms: 7 am to 9:00 pm
  • Lit areas in the park: 7 am to 11:30 pm
  • We do our best to open as close to 7 am as possible.

People-power only, please.

No motorized vehicles.

Visit Depot Park website

 

Depot Park was also designed to play an important role in treating the city’s stormwater. The design consists of a treatment train approach where stormwater flows through a series of baffle boxes, forebays, wet detention ponds, a braided stream, and wetlands.

Learn more about how our water is cleaned using a stormwater treatment train.

The City of Gainesville’s Public Works department developed a plan for a stormwater treatment system to capture the runoff from 47 acres of downtown and 42 acres redirected from the adjacent Sweetwater Branch Creek. The design, utilizing Depot Parkand the ponds inside of the park, cleans the stormwater using a treatment train approach. The stormwater passes through a series of baffle boxes to collect large debris. The water also passes through Forebays which allow small debris to settle and the stormwater continues into wet detention ponds, a braided stream, and wetlands to help clean the water. After passing through the Depot Park treatment train, the stormwater exits the park and travels through Sweetwater Preserve, Sweet Water Wetlands Parks, and Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park before entering the aquifer, which is the source of our drinking water.


 

Acres: 32      

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Electrical improvements completed at Depot Park in August of 2020.  The work included the addition of bollard lighting from the Depot Park parking lot to the old RTS parking lot.Also included was a large electrical capacity upgrade to the park.Existing light poles were retrofitted with electrical outlets and additional 30 and 50 amp outlets were strategically located in the Little Lawns, the West Overlook, the East Overlook and the Open Lawn to better accommodate programming and events held at Depot Park.Oelrich Construction, Inc. was the general contractor for the project.This Wild Spaces Public Places project cost was $456,991.

 

 

Location

874 SE 4th Street, Gainesville 32601  View Map

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Features

  • Accessible
  • Bicycle Paths
  • Picnic Tables
  • Playground
  • Grills
  • Restrooms
  • Waterplay
  • Walking Trails/Paths
  • Wildlife/Bird Watching
  • Dogs on Leash
  • Pavilions

Hours

Children’s play area: 7 a.m. to Sunset
Conservation area: 7 a.m. to Sunset
Restrooms: 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Lit areas in the park: 7 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.

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