The area known as Turtle Creek has been a center of interest and development for over 100 years, but it wasn’t until 1937 that it was officially named Turtle Creek. Over the next 68 years it was established as a park through City efforts, land donations and from the support of Dallas citizens and visionary groups such as the Turtle Creek Association.

Mayor John Henry Brown promoted the use of the Turtle Creek area as a park in the late 19^th century. Oak Lawn Park (now Lee Park) became the first public park of North Dallas in 1903, and in 1909, Reverchon Park was assembled on 36 acres of land that were previously occupied by slums. In 1915, 50 additional acres of green space were donated to the parkway.

Oak Lawn Park was renamed Lee Park soon after President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated a statue of General Robert E. Lee at the park in 1936. In 1944, landscape architects Hare and Hare released a plan prepared for the Dallas Park Board that called for the acquisition of additional land for the parkway.

The Mill Creek diversion drainage system was built in 1950 to drain the 1.9 square miles of the Mill Creek watershed into Turtle Creek, just downstream of Blackburn Street. In 1955, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Kalita Humphrey’s Theater was built on the east bank of the Creek in William B. Dean Park, and the Park Bridge drainage system was built by the Army Corps of Engineers to drain the Creek directly into the Trinity River.

After its establishment in 1974, the Uptown Public Improvement District (PID) dramatically changed the physical and social character of the neighborhood, and continues today to focus on improving the Uptown and Turtle Creek areas.

Running along the eastern edge of the Turtle Creek Park area, the Missouri Kansas Texas (MKT) rail right-of-way was proposed to be converted into a biking and jogging trail in 1992, and a 2.25 mile segment opened as the Katy Trail in 1999.  When complete, the Katy Trail will serve bikers, runners, walkers, and in-line skaters. It will feature a 3.5-mile, 12-foot wide concrete path for wheels and a 3.1-mile, 8-foot wide state-of-the-art, soft-surface track for runners and walkers.