It’s park season! Ok well actually every season is park season in Boise, but fall is when our parks are really showing off their beauty (and fall officially beings on Sunday!). A while back I did a story about the matriarchs of Boise’s parks, which highlighted a few of the women that Boise’s parks are named after.

Today I’m back with part two of the matriarchs of Boise’s parks, sharing three more Boise women and the parks that have been named after them. You can listen to me read this story on the podcast. Enjoy!

Esther Simplot Park

​Esther Simplot Park is a 55-acre park situated in between the Boise River and Whitewater Blvd, near Quinn’s Pond and Whitewater Park. Esther's park has lots of amenities but most notably is the 23 acres of ponds for fishing, swimming, and paddling and a “meandering stream” that connects the ponds to its neighbor, Quinn’s Pond. There’s also open grass areas for playing and picnics, wetlands, a boardwalk, paved walking paths, two pavilions, Friendship Island, a playground, and two restrooms. The Greenbelt connects to and runs through the park, and you can cross the 36th Street Bridge from there as well, which connects to the surf wave and dining options along the Greenbelt.

The park was named after Esther Simplot, a local performing arts advocate, philanthropist, and the widow of J.R. Simplot. In 2003, Esther and J.R. Simplot donated $1 million to the city to help purchase the riverfront property that is now Esther Simplot Park.

Esther Simplot was originally from Wisconsin and moved to Boise in 1972 with her husband. As a lifelong lover of performing arts and a former opera singer, Esther immediately got involved in Boise’s local arts scene. In the 70s, Ballet Idaho and Boise Philharmonic existed but neither had their own spaces. The arts organizations were borrowing spaces for rehearsals and moving locations constantly. Esther’s first order of business was securing buildings for each of the arts organizations, as well as co-founding Opera Idaho.

She was the driving force behind construction of the Esther Simplot Performing Arts Academy in 1992, the Academy Annex in 1996, and made another expansion possible in 2021. The complex is located in between 8th Street and 9th Streets in downtown Boise and is home to Ballet Idaho, Boise Philharmonic, and Opera Idaho.

Esther Simplot still lives in Boise. You can visit the park of her namesake at 3206 Pleasanton Ave, Boise.

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Terry Day Park

​Terry Day Park is a 7 acre park located off Federal Way on the Boise Bench. It’s one of those “hidden in plain sight" parks that you’ve probably driven by 100 times but never realized was there.

The park has a walking path, a small pond, a pollinator garden, dual use tennis/pickleball courts, an accessible playground with a sweet mini zipline, a restroom, a picnic shelter, picnic tables, open grassy areas for playing, and plenty of trees.

The park’s namesake is Terry Day, a longtime Boise resident who had a passion for land conservation, tennis, gardening, and volunteering in her community.

Born in 1932, Dorothy Therese Primrose Mizpah Owen, better known as Terry, moved to Boise with her family from Llanelly, Wales in 1951. She worked as a typist at Albertsons, which is where she met her future husband, Patrick O. Day. They married on March 7, 1953.

Terry volunteered in the community for her entire life in Boise. She was president of the St. Alphonsus Hospital Auxiliary and part of the group that founded the annual Festival of Trees celebration, which is still going on today. Terry also served as a member of the Junior League of Boise, League of Women Voters, Idaho State Historical Museum, Morrison Center Auxiliary, and the Bronco Athletic Association.

She also was amongst the founders of the Boise Swim and Racquet Club. Terry loved to play tennis and enjoyed many matches with her friends at different Boise parks and at the Club.

Terry loved to garden. She was a certified Advanced Master Gardener and member of the local Merry Tillers Garden Club. She loved growing and tending flowers. She also became a flower show judge and participated as a judge at the Western Idaho Fair.

Terry passed away in 2007.

The land that is now Terry Day Park was formerly the Day Family’s property where Terry and her husband Pat spent 60 years together, raising their children, flowers, trees, and all kinds of animals. Terry Day Park now carries little pieces of things she loved, including a flower garden, tennis courts, and places to gather with family, friends, and the community. You can visit her park at 1225 S. Federal Way, Boise.

Laura Moore Cunningham Arboretum

​Laura Moore Cunningham Arboretum is technically not a park, but a tree nursery located in Boise’s East End. It’s right next to Kristin Armstrong Municipal Park.

The arboretum is located just south of the home where Laura Moore Cunningham grew up and then spent most of her adult life. The land is now managed by the City of Boise and is used to grow trees for our city parks. The arboretum has over 90 different species of deciduous trees, over 20 species of conifers, and over 50 different cultivars among the different species.

Laura Moore Cunningham was a long-time city benefactor, volunteer, and an avid gardener. She was the second child of C.W. and Catherine Moore, born in Boise in 1869. Laura lived a full and fortunate life, attending college on the East Coast and traveling throughout Europe on more than one occasion.

After her mother’s death in 1911, while living in New York City, Laura urged her husband to return to Boise and help care for her father and their home in Boise's East End. After her father passed in 1916, Laura and her husband, J.W. Cunningham, continued to live in the iconic home at 1109 W Warm Springs Ave. Along with the help of three gardeners, Laura kept extensive gardens behind the family’s home.

In addition to keeping her home and gardens, Laura was involved in the local community, particularly with the Red Cross, the Children’s Home, and Boise Junior College.

During World War II, there was a large hospital in Boise at Gowen Field. Laura Cunningham sponsored and led a group of women called “The Grey Ladies” under the Red Cross. The Grey Ladies were tasked with making wounded servicemen comfortable during their rehabilitation stay before they were sent off to Europe to fight. The Grey Ladies provided non-medical assistance such as writing letters, reading, tutoring, and shopping for their patients. They also served as guides to visitors and as hostesses in hospital recreation rooms and at information desks.

Laura also served on the board of the Children’s Home Society of Idaho for over thirty years. She donated much of her time and money, and kept close track of the administrative details, the welfare of individual children, and the activities of the Home. She was an honorary member of the board at the time of her death.

Laura Belle Moore Cunningham died on August 16, 1963. She saw Boise change drastically over her lifetime.

Boise became the capital of Idaho Territory just five years before she was born and had a population of roughly 1,600. At the time of her death, Boise’s population was closer to 75,000.

Here's just a few things that happened in Boise during Laura’s lifetime: the Old Idaho State Penitentiary was built, the Idanha Hotel opened, Idaho became the 43rd US state, Julia Davis Park was created, the Idaho State Capitol building was built, Boise got its first airfield (where BSU is now), then became Boise Airport and moved to its current location, Idaho got its first skyscraper when Hotel Boise was completed (it's known now as the Hoff Building), and the first Albertson’s supermarket opened.

You can check out the Laura Moore Cunningham Arboretum at 1149 E Lewis Street in Boise’s East End. You can see the trees from the sidewalk. Sometimes the City of Boise does tours of the arboretum but I didn’t see any coming up soon. When they happen, you can find tour info here.

Ok that's all I got for you today. Here is a list of Boise parks if you want to do some park exploring this fall.

Thanks for reading!

With love from Boise,

Marissa

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