Memorial Park is Provo's outdoor history lesson on Center Street at 800 East. Along with a playground and picnic tables, this one block holds a veterans memorial, a marker to an artificial-heart pioneer and six plaques from the Rotary Club's series on the city's past, so a slow loop takes longer than the park's six and a half acres suggest.
Pictured above: The 40 mm naval gun at the veterans memorial, May 2017. Photo by Ben P L, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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At a glance
- Address: 809 E Center St, Provo (map)
- Size: 6.7 acres
What's here
Play
- Playground
Picnics
- Picnic tables
Trails and nature
- Walking and bike path
Facilities
- Dog waste station
- Historical markers
What the markers tell
The veterans memorial is built around a 40 mm anti-aircraft gun of the kind mounted on Navy ships, with a quotation from Katharine Lee Bates, the author of "America the Beautiful." Nearby, a 1984 marker remembers Dr. Barney Clark, whom it calls one of Provo's finest sons: in December 1982 he became the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart, and it kept him alive until March 1983.
The Rotary plaques range over the city's first century: a fatal accident at the site of Provo's lime kiln, the 1871 jail, the 1885 opening of the territorial asylum, the fire that destroyed a Brigham Young Academy building, the decades when Provo's settlers held no legal title to their land, and an 1888 wheelbarrow parade that helped bring party politics to town.
Before you go
The city's data lists no restrooms and no pavilion here, and no off-street lot, so come for an hour, not a reunion. The park sits a block east of the 700 East roundabout on Center Street, which makes it an easy walk from the east end of downtown. The city plans to bring Exchange Park's 9/11 memorial here as part of a Provo River Trail project it expects to finish in summer 2027.
On Provo.com
- Joaquin neighborhood
- A short history of Provo
- The Center Street historic walking tour: the rest of the street's history, block by block
Parks nearby
Sources: Provo City park data, 2026-09-30; HMDB: Dr. Barney Clark; Provo City: Parks Projects; HMDB: A Tragedy at the Site of the Provo Lime Kiln; HMDB: A Wheelbarrow Parade in 1888; HMDB: Provo's First Jail Was Built in 1871. Hours and rules: the parks hub.