Dr. H. Phillip Venable Memorial Park Takeaway. Spectacular playground stowed away off Spoede. A Playground Complete park that also offers a half-mile or so walking path and tennis courts. The main playground has two amazing slides, dozens of entrance vectors, and very solid time-to-reset for slide rides. Three stories high, there are hundreds of combinations to go up and down.
Swings and a younger kids' playground complement the main playground. The park also has tennis courts that look like they have seen better days. A walking path surrounds the playground and a giant field.
A large parking lot backs onto the playground. The bathrooms are available, but they are closed over the winter, so you have to backtrack out of the park to find one.
Dr. H. Phillip Venable Memorial Park Experience Summary
We went to Dr. H. Philip Venable Memorial Park over the weekend. We stopped on the way home from a Saturday activity in Clayton,
The entrance to the park is directly across from Spoede Elementary School, but they tucked it into a neighborhood.
And it's really tucked in.
You drive half a mile through a one-lane-ish neighborhood road to the park.
That opens up to a giant parking lot in the middle of the park near the playgrounds. The park is surprisingly awesome for being so secluded. It has excellent playground apparatus and a giant open field surrounded by a walking path.
The main playground structure anchors the park. It is a seven-slide beast with three or four giant slides and many supporting structures.
A little kid's playground and climbing area separate from the main playground and swings.
It's just a great park overall. To fully take advantage of it, you need to live in the neighborhood. The fact that they tucked it away makes it much harder for the general public to access. You have to decide to go and drive the kids intentionally.
But a fantastic neighborhood park in Creve Couer.
Dr. H. Phillip Venable Memorial Park Playground Breakdown
The park has two features that immediately make you take notice.
A giant playground with at least seven slides that I counted, including two monster slides three stories tall.
A quarter to half-mile walking trail loop around the park.
The whole setup has a mini Stacey Park vibe to it.
Main Playground
The main playground is the biggest I've been to in the area by a long shot.
With at least seven slides, the time to reset on a slide is super low, so your kids can go on slide after slide each minute. Add a ton of entrance vectors that provide a near-infinite number of ways to go back up.
The Playground Complete package makes it easy for kids to spend an hour having fun without a semblance of boredom.
The two giant main slides go pretty fast, but each one has a curve, slowing you down a bit. Besides the two really big slides, you'll find a couple of other medium, kind of twirly slides.
For entrance vectors into the playground, you have:
You can enter this playground in about 30 ways, giving kids near-infinite entertainment.
With all the ways up, the time to reset is pretty fast for the two main slides. While both slides require climbing the same ladder, the ways into the pipeline provide room for creativity.
As a parent, note that the second ladder up is a tight fit on the second story. So unless you want to squeeze in with them, they have to be able to go up a ladder by themselves. MY four-year-old could handle it without issue.
He's a pro now.
He could have done it starting at three and a half, maybe, but he has never been the most coordinated kid.
Other Apparati
There's also a swing set and small things to play with scattered about.
They also had a little kids' playground. We didn't spend time in this part of the park, but it looked like a standard playground with small slides and ladders.
Dr. H. Phillip Venable Memorial Park Amenities And Miscellaneous
For grownups, the walking path looked great. It won't take you to the woods or past fancy scenery, but you'll get a nice view of the park and a view of the open space.
The park has benches in each corner of the loop to stop.
Just an overall excellent walking or running option.
They have tennis courts that look like they've seen better days but were not open.
The pavilion was plenty big. You can host a kid's party in it without any issues. The accompanying picnic tables add to the available space for a party.
They also closed their bathrooms in the winter. I don't understand why. What's the point of having a bathroom if you can't use it? We had to drive to a gas station for my son to use the bathroom, and my other son soon peed on a tree.
I don't understand why they close bathrooms at a park.
Parking At Dr. H. Phillip Venable Memorial Park
Parking is easy. There's a giant parking lot. It's right next to the playground.
Dr. H. Phillip Venable Memorial Park Receipt
