Today is Memorial Day and this seems like the perfect day to start my new series on the parks of Traverse City, and the first park is, appropriately, American Legion Park. This half-acre park sits on the corner of Cass and Washington. A memorial to veterans sits at the corner entrance.
This park has access to the Boardman River and has been the spot to pull out kayaks while FishPass is undergoing construction. From the building you can see Rivers Edge, the condo building that used to be a foundry. Out of curiosity, a quick search revealed that right now (5/25/2026), a condo on the top floor is for sale for a bit over $1 million with $16/year HOA feels. Quite the bargain. In the foreground is the white American Legion bridge.
And a view of American Legion Park from the boardwalk that goes along the south side of the Boardman River. The Central Method Church is on the left, built in 1913 and it looks like the duomo in Florence, Italy. I've never been inside the church, but I'm sure there is still plenty of seats even after they merged with the now-shuttered Traverse Bay UMC. Across Cass and in the middle part of the image is a building with apartments of people I don't know and shops I've never gone in. I'm sure they're all wonderful people.
The American Legion was founded in 1919 after the idea was proposed by Theodore Roosevelt. It is the largest, oldest United States service organization. It is headquartered in Indianapolis.