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Botany, baseball and a bath house: The roots of Dallas’ Reverchon Park

The name of this verdant park in the heart of Oak Lawn harks back to the trailblazing French botanist Julien Reverchon.

Known for its sprawling fields, outdoor courts and recreation center, Reverchon Park has had its name since 1914. The story behind the park tells of a hunting area, a shantytown and a mineral well that sat on the same tract of land.

The Dallas Morning News’ archives offer a background story of the park grounds and the park’s relation to world-renowned botanist Julien Reverchon.

The Reverchons’ arrival in Dallas

Headline of a story published in The Dallas Morning News on Aug. 28, 1932.
Headline of a story published in The Dallas Morning News on Aug. 28, 1932.(The Dallas Morning News)

In 1857, Maximilian Reverchon and his 18-year-old son Julien left their family behind in France and migrated to Dallas to join French, Belgian and Swiss colonists at La Réunion — a utopian socialist community settled on the southwest bank of the Trinity River. Upon arrival in Dallas, the Reverchons learned that La Réunion dissolved due to lacking leadership and unfamiliarity with North Texas’ growing conditions. Maximilian bought farmland and a home that would be known as Rose Cottage for himself and his son in present-day Oak Cliff.

Botanical bravado

Julien, or Jules, delved into nature from a young age, his last name fitting him to a T: “reverchon” means “a dark-red variety of sweet cherry” in French. By the time he emigrated from France, Julien had collected over 2,000 plant species, leaving them in his brothers’ care. In his early Dallas days, Julien studied the new and unfamiliar vegetation in his vicinity, eventually traveling across Texas to collect plant samples from the state’s distinct ecoregions.

Original plant pressings from Julien Reverchon, who documented thousands of native Texas...
Original plant pressings from Julien Reverchon, who documented thousands of native Texas plants. Photograph taken at Botanical Research Institute of Texas in Fort Worth on July 31, 2003.(Natalie Caudill)

During his lifetime, Julien preserved thousands of Texan flora and botanical specimens from all over the world at his cottage in Oak Cliff, and later, his herbaria would make their way to various institutions and museums, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Smithsonian Institution and the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis.

Julien married Marie Henry in 1864, and together, they had two sons who both died of typhoid fever in 1884. Marie died in 1901. Julien served as a professor of botany at Baylor Medical College for 10 years. He died in 1905.

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Park’s roots

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In 1914, the city of Dallas purchased a 36-acre tract of land bisected by Turtle Creek for $31,128. When the city bought the property, it was first called Turtle Creek Park, and in June 1915, its name was changed to Reverchon Park after the famed Dallas botanist.

Before becoming a city park, the area was known as Woodchuck Hill and Raccoon Springs, which were known for their reputations as a shantytown and popular hunting spot, respectively.

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Photograph of Woodchuck Hill’s hovels, 1910. Courtesy of Dallas Municipal Archives, provided...
Photograph of Woodchuck Hill’s hovels, 1910. Courtesy of Dallas Municipal Archives, provided by University of North Texas' Portal to Texas History.(Unknown)

A decade before the founding of Reverchon Park came Gill Well, an artesian well drilled in the northwest sector of Woodchuck Hill. The contract for Gill Well included provisions for a bath house owned by Gill Well Sanitarium Co. and free public fountains from which residents could collect water.

Photograph of the Gill Well Bath House off Maple Avenue. Staff photograph published in The...
Photograph of the Gill Well Bath House off Maple Avenue. Staff photograph published in The Dallas Morning News on Jan. 13, 1907.(Clogenson)
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While the well allegedly provided hot medicinal mineral water, the bath house shut down in the early 1920s upon discovery of toxic levels of “chloride, lithium, magnesium, potassium and sulfate, among other minerals.”

Park enhancements

In the 1920s, Reverchon debuted a baseball field, which can be spotted on the right heading northbound on the Dallas North Tollway. In 1924, a 300-seat wooden grandstand was added to the field, and in the mid-1930s, the diamond, home plate and grandstand were all rotated.

The Dallas Sox gather around their dugout, awaiting the start of their game. Staff...
The Dallas Sox gather around their dugout, awaiting the start of their game. Staff photograph taken July 23, 1995.(Louis DeLuca)

Over the years, this sandlot has hosted many Dallas Amateur Baseball Association, Dallas Independent School District, SMU and youth baseball games. The 18-team DABA league, in particular, used wooden bats during all their games.

The century-old baseball field still stands, though its decaying field is unplayable. Former Dallas Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson and other private investors initially spearheaded efforts to give the park facilities a facelift, but after their funding fell through in 2020, DISD was able to take up the mantle thanks to a 2020 bond package approval that set aside $25 million for the renovation project.

The remodeled field is set to be ready for play in spring 2022.

Photograph of the newly minted Iris Bowl, published in The Dallas Morning News on April 20,...
Photograph of the newly minted Iris Bowl, published in The Dallas Morning News on April 20, 1938.(The Dallas Morning News)
A shaft of morning light strikes the Iris Bowl at Reverchon Park. Staff photograph taken...
A shaft of morning light strikes the Iris Bowl at Reverchon Park. Staff photograph taken April 9, 2015.(G.J. McCarthy / Staff photographer)

In the 1930s, the city directed New Deal funds toward masonry that dotted the park, including stone stairwells and lookouts, an amphitheater called the Iris Bowl and a bridge over Turtle Creek.