"Presented To The City & County of Denver By The Denver Campfire Girls." That is the sign on a stone-and-cement grill and chimney at the north end of Washington Park, in a photograph the Denver Public Library dates to sometime between 1930 and 1950. The city now lists that chimney for restoration. It is one of several familiar spots behind construction fencing this year, and they all come from the same project.
Denver Parks & Recreation calls it the Washington Park Trail, Courts and Picnic Area Improvements project. It has a $3,040,000 budget, construction began in early 2026, and the city estimates it will finish this fall. Nearly every item in the scope follows one rule. The work brings the park's oldest everyday infrastructure up to current accessibility standards, and the spots being rebuilt are the ones people use most.
A Fireplace With Two Names
The city's Washington Park project page calls the north-end feature the Girl Scouts Fireplace. It says Picnic Area 1 "will be upgraded along with restoration of the nearby Girl Scouts Fireplace."
The library's archival record tells a slightly different story. The inscription in the photograph credits the Denver Campfire Girls. The catalog caption reads "Out door grill donated by Girl Scouts [sic]," and the archivist's "sic" marks the mismatch.
"Presented To The City & County of Denver By The Denver Campfire Girls"
The sources settle neither the date the fireplace was built nor who built it. The photo is dated only to a twenty-year window. What they do establish is that the city's 2026 rebuild includes a piece of the park's north end that has stood for many decades. The October 2025 design drawings for the picnic areas also label a "reconstructed brick grill" among the planned features. A restoration also has to meet modern standards, and that requirement shapes the rest of the project.
The Common Thread Is Access
The city's reasons for the work are unusually consistent. Picnic Areas 1 and 4 "show signs of wear and no longer meet current ADA standards." The tennis courts nearest the playground will get "ADA sidewalks" along with new lighting, fencing, nets and furniture. Portions of aging asphalt paths "will be replaced with concrete to meet Denver Parks and Recreation (DPR) and ADA standards."
The paths are the Meadow Loop. Its asphalt sidewalks run south of the Washington Park Recreation Center and along the west side of South Humboldt Street. The design map adds trail accessibility improvements, a new trail segment and an accessible pedestrian connection to Kentucky Avenue.
The table sorts the project by place, as a regular would come across it:
| Spot in the park | What the city says is changing | Status as of October 12, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Picnic Area 1, north end | Upgraded to current standards; Girl Scouts Fireplace restored | In the project; no public progress update found |
| Picnic Area 4, east side | Improved; nearby gazebo assessed | Design drawings label a gazebo renovation |
| Tennis courts nearest the playground | Rehabilitated or rebuilt with new lighting, fencing, ADA sidewalks, nets and furniture | In the project; no reopening date published |
| Meadow Loop paths | Aging asphalt replaced with concrete | Repaving underway on the east side as of late September |
| East-side pull-up bars | Replaced while the nearby path is repaved | Removed mid-September; return expected "later this fall" |
The design drawings also show smaller features that should make the finished picnic sites feel different from the ones they replace. They label new accessible picnic tables and connections, a bag-toss game, benches, an ash bin, new court surfacing and amenities, a new chain-link fence and updated court lights.
Why the Pull-Up Bars Went First
In mid-September, the outdoor pull-up bars on the park's east side disappeared behind orange fencing. Denverite photographed the empty rectangle on September 29 and reported that the bars' absence had shown up on Reddit and in a Google review.
A Denver Parks and Recreation spokesperson told Denverite that the old bars were outdated and out of compliance. The department began replacing them when the nearby path was also being repaved, and the spokesperson said the bars will be back "later this fall" without giving an exact date.
The bars came out because they no longer met standards, and their removal was timed to the path repaving beside them.
A Plan That Started in 2011
None of this was decided this year. The city's project page traces the improvements to the 2011 Washington Park Vision Plan, which "identified a series of improvements to preserve the park's legacy and enhance the community experience." The money comes from the Elevate Denver Bond, the Parks Legacy Fund and the department's capital improvement budget.
The public part of the process happened a year ago. The West Washington Park Neighborhood Association listed a preconstruction open house on September 16, 2025, covering walkway, picnic-site and west-side tennis-court work. The final design followed in October 2025.
The scale stands out against the park's previous round of work. The City Ditch repairs in the park's southern half replaced three pedestrian bridges, converted a short asphalt trail to crusher fines, added native plantings and removed an unused basketball court. That project was budgeted at $1,360,000 and scheduled to finish in summer 2023. The current project carries more than twice that budget. It is also the first in a while to reach the north-end picnic grounds, the courts by the playground and the east-side paths together. The playground near the North Boathouse got its own upgrade in a separate project, with new seating areas, tree plantings and a "landforms" play area, which the city marks complete as of 2023.
What Is Still an Open Question
The city's own documents hedge on several points. Anyone timing a picnic, a tennis game or a morning set at the bars may want to keep these in mind.
- The finish date. The project sheet says "Fall 2026," and the project page says "Late 2026." The sheet adds that the schedule "is an estimate only" and subject to change.
- The gazebo. The project page says the Picnic Area 4 gazebo will be assessed, and the design drawings label a renovation. The final scope of that work has not been published.
- The pipe between Smith Lake and the lily pond. It is listed for "assessment and potential rehabilitation/replacement." That wording describes a possibility, and no work on it has been confirmed.
- Turf conversion. The city also plans to identify "park areas for possible conversion to climate-resilient turf and plantings." No locations have been named.
- The pull-up bars. They are due back "later this fall," and no date has been given.
The city's project page offers an email list for Washington Park updates, which is the most direct way to learn when each fence comes down.
Updates like a restored fireplace, a better path or a newly lit court shape what a home near the park is like to live in from one day to the next. Coleen Sanders follows these park-edge changes closely. If you'd like to talk about what they mean for your home on Franklin, Humboldt or anywhere around the lakes, let's connect.
