118 years and counting.Welcome to HistoricMcKennan Park

Every day from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. There is no gate and no admission charge.

400 East 26th Street in Sioux Falls, between 21st and 26th Streets and 2nd and 4th Avenues, seven blocks south of downtown. Park on the street along 2nd Avenue, 4th Avenue or 26th Street, or in the small lot off 21st Street at the north end.

No. The pool has been free since the first one opened in 1929. The new zero-depth pool and bathhouse opened May 29, 2026, and run late May to late August, 1 to 5 p.m. and 6:30 to 8 p.m., weather permitting.

Yes, on a leash. Bag dispensers are along the walking loop.

No. Helen McKennan gave the land in 1906 on the condition that the park stay alcohol free, and the city still enforces it. The same rule applies to the rummage sale potluck and every event in the park.

Mondays at McKennan runs every Monday at 7 p.m. from July 6 through August 31, 2026, at the band shell. The Sioux Falls Municipal Band plays Thursday, July 23. Bring a lawn chair; shows are weather permitting and the city posts cancellations the afternoon of.

Yes. The picnic shelter, 22 by 22 feet with power, reserves online through the city. The band shell and weddings in the sunken garden are booked through Sioux Falls Parks and Recreation at 605-367-7060.

Yes, at the pool bathhouse near the center of the park and at the tennis building on the north end. The bathhouse also has a concessions window in pool season.

An accessible playground, eight tennis courts, a basketball court, horseshoe pits, shuffleboard, a picnic shelter, the formal and sunken gardens, a paved walking loop under the elms, and in winter an ice rink with a warming house.

For Helen Gale McKennan, a widow and land developer who deeded her house and twenty acres to the city on the day she died, September 29, 1906, for a public park. The same will founded McKennan Hospital, now Avera McKennan. The park opened in 1908.

The Pillars of the Nation, finished in August 1941. Park caretaker Oscar Ellefson proposed them in 1940, and every one of the 48 states sent a native stone for the masonry. Two older pillars beside them hold South Dakota stone and fossils.

A bronze replica, dedicated July 22, 2002, on the stone pedestal that held a wooden Liberty from 1943 until vandals destroyed it in the 1960s. The wooden one was said to be a model carved by Bartholdi himself.

Seven historical markers placed between 1999 and the 2020s by the Minnehaha County Historical Society, the city's preservation board and the Friends of McKennan Park. They cover the gift, the zoo, the Municipal Band, the Pillars, Lady Liberty, the McKennan house, the pool and the lost Miniature Village. Every one is transcribed on the markers page.

The neighborhood association for the blocks around the park, founded in 2014. They plant the floral nameplate, hang the holiday garlands, place the markers, apply for city tree grants and run the June rummage sale. Membership is open to residents of the McKennan Park neighborhood; email friendsofmckennanpark@gmail.com.

One weekend each June. Dozens of households sell at once and the Friends publish every listing on an interactive map. The 2026 sale was the eighth annual; 2027 dates post in spring on the Friends site and the neighborhood Facebook group.

Yes. The McKennan Park Historic District, the park plus 85 houses facing it and the 21st Street boulevard, was listed June 6, 1984, and expanded in 2003.