A Neighborhood Shaped by Open Land
Waveland Park is one of those Des Moines neighborhoods that feels established without feeling frozen in time. Its tree-lined streets, comfortable early-20th-century homes, schools, cemetery grounds, and broad green spaces give it a settled character. Yet the neighborhood’s story is really one of growth: a once-open western edge of the city gradually became a residential community organized around a remarkable public park.
The name comes from Waveland Park, the large recreational landscape that remains the neighborhood’s defining feature. By 1898, Waveland Park was listed as Des Moines’ largest park, covering approximately 190 acres—larger than Greenwood Park and Grandview Park. Unlike some nearby neighborhoods, Waveland Park does not appear to have been named for a single developer or prominent resident. Available local histories trace the neighborhood’s identity to the park itself, which became the anchor for later streets, homes, schools, and institutions.
The name’s deeper origin is not clearly documented in the commonly available neighborhood histories. That uncertainty is part of the charm: Waveland is a name residents have inherited from the landscape, rather than from a single founding family.
From City Edge to Civic Landscape
In the late 19th century, Des Moines was expanding westward. Streetcar lines helped make that expansion possible, connecting downtown with emerging parks and attractions beyond the older residential core. The Des Moines Railway extended trolley service along Ingersoll Avenue toward what is now the Polk Boulevard area, giving residents access to nearby Greenwood Park and the former Ingersoll amusement park. A trolley loop also served the Waveland area, helping turn open land into an accessible destination.
The city acquired land for Waveland Park in 1894. That purchase reflected the era’s growing interest in public parks, scenic drives, and the City Beautiful movement, which encouraged municipalities to invest in attractive, healthful public spaces. Waveland’s rolling terrain and elevated views made it particularly appealing as both a park and a future civic landmark.
The park’s best-known transformation came in 1901, when it became an 18-hole golf course designed by Warren Dickinson. Waveland Golf Course is widely recognized as the oldest public golf course west of the Mississippi River, and its public character has always been central to the neighborhood’s identity. It was not built as an exclusive country club. Instead, it offered ordinary Des Moines residents a chance to enjoy a sport that was still relatively new in the Midwest.
A Home for Science and the Night Sky
One of Waveland Park’s most distinctive landmarks is the Drake Municipal Observatory, located on the golf course grounds. The observatory’s story began with Drake University astronomer Daniel Morehouse, who recognized that the park’s high point offered a darker, clearer sky than the increasingly built-up area around campus.
The observatory was eventually established on the Waveland site, where its location provided both accessibility and a commanding view. For generations of Des Moines residents, the building has represented a wonderful combination of neighborhood life and scientific curiosity. Children could sled on the golf course hills in winter, families could watch golfers in summer, and students and amateur astronomers could study the heavens from the same green landscape.
Today, the observatory remains one of Waveland Park’s signature places. It is a reminder that the neighborhood’s heritage is not limited to architecture or old street names. It also includes education, public recreation, and the long tradition of making specialized institutions part of everyday community life.
Glendale Cemetery and the Shape of the Neighborhood
Another major influence on Waveland Park’s development was Glendale Cemetery. The cemetery first opened for burials in 1906, and its broad lawns and mature trees became an important part of the neighborhood’s landscape. Together, Glendale Cemetery and the golf course preserved large expanses of open land as Des Moines grew around them.
For residents, the cemetery is more than a place of remembrance. Its quiet paths, old monuments, and wooded edges contribute to the peaceful atmosphere that distinguishes Waveland Park from busier commercial corridors. It also connects the neighborhood to the city’s broader history, preserving the names and stories of earlier generations.
The nearby Des Moines Masonic Cemetery adds another layer to this heritage. Located south of Franklin Avenue Library and adjacent to Glendale, it forms part of a larger stretch of historic open space in the neighborhood.
Homes, Schools, and Westward Expansion
Residential construction accelerated during the 1920s and 1930s as Des Moines continued moving west. Streets around University Avenue, 42nd Street, 48th Street, 56th Street, and Kingman Boulevard filled with bungalows, American Foursquare houses, and Craftsman-influenced homes.
These houses were practical and attainable for middle-class families. Common features included broad front porches, front-facing gables, generous roof overhangs, wood shingles, stucco, brick, and stone details. Many still give Waveland Park its welcoming appearance today. Rather than being dominated by one grand architectural style, the neighborhood’s character comes from the consistency of its scale and the variety of its details.
Schools followed the homes. Hubbell Elementary opened in 1910, Perkins Elementary in 1918, and Roosevelt High School in 1923. Roosevelt, especially, became a major architectural and civic landmark. Designed in the Tudor Revival style by Proudfoot, Bird & Rawson, the 1922 high school reflects the ambition Des Moines brought to public education during the early 20th century. Its inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places recognizes both its design and its importance in the city’s development.
Kingman Boulevard and Polk Boulevard also helped define the neighborhood’s physical identity. The 1909 planning vision for Des Moines imagined a connected system of parks and boulevards linking Greenwood Park, Waveland Park, and downtown. Although the entire plan was never completed, the intersection of Kingman and Polk remains one of the clearest examples of that early civic-planning ideal.
Change Without Losing Its Character
Like every older Des Moines neighborhood, Waveland Park has changed over the decades. Transportation projects altered portions of the golf course, commercial activity shifted along University Avenue and nearby corridors, and some longtime institutions disappeared or were repurposed. Yet the neighborhood retained its essential framework: historic houses, mature trees, schools, open land, and a strong connection to public recreation.
The Waveland Park Neighborhood Association, formed in the early 1990s, helped give residents a formal way to care for that legacy. Its work has included neighborhood planning, social events, beautification projects, and efforts connected with the Drake Observatory and local public spaces.
That combination of stewardship and everyday life is what makes Waveland Park special. A walk along Kingman Boulevard may pass a Craftsman porch, a schoolyard, the cemetery’s old trees, and the open sweep of Waveland Golf Course within a few blocks. The neighborhood’s history is not locked away in a museum. It is visible in the streets, heard in the sound of a tennis match, felt on a winter sledding hill, and carried forward by the people who continue to call Waveland Park home.