You can get the park inventory anywhere. About twenty parks, somewhere between 1,100 and 1,200 acres, forty-four athletic fields, twenty-one tennis courts. I will give you all of that below, because it is genuinely good and it is part of why people pay what they pay to live here.
But the largest preserve and the biggest park are both named for the same man, and his story is the best thing in this city. So I want to start there.
Bob Jones was born in 1850, enslaved by his own father.
The Southlake Historical Society documents it from the census record: in the 1850 Arkansas slave schedule, a Black woman aged twenty-four — Elizabeth — and three children, Jim, Josephine and Bob, are listed as the property of Leazer Alvis Jones. Leazer was Bob’s father. Elizabeth, whom Leazer enslaved, was Bob’s mother.
Around 1859 Leazer brought Elizabeth and their children to Texas, settling in the Medlin community near what is now Roanoke.
What Bob Jones did next is remarkable by any measure.
He drove cattle on the Chisholm Trail, then began buying land east of the family farm and built a cattle and farming operation on the Denton–Tarrant county line. He became one of the largest landowners in the area, eventually holding somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 acres — and the Historical Society is careful to record the phrase “free and clear.”
He married Almeady Chisum on 3 January 1875. Her surname carries its own history, and the detail deserves to be read exactly as the City wrote it: in 1858, “Almeady and her mother and sister were given to cattle baron John Chisum as collateral for $814 worth of cattle being driven to California.” The Historical Society puts Almeady at about a year old at the time. Three people, pledged against a herd. Bob and Almeady had ten children between 1875 and 1898.
He died on Christmas Day 1936. Nearly five hundred people came to the funeral.
This is the part that turns a biography into a legacy.
In 1920, the Historical Society records, “to benefit his grandchildren and other Black children in the area, Bob donated an acre to the county… and had his sons and sons-in-law build the one-room Walnut Grove School.”
It closed in 1951, and the reason is quieter than you would guess. The Historical Society records it plainly: “In 1951, Walnut Grove closed because its students (fewer than 10) were heading to junior and senior high.” Thirty-one years of a one-room school, and it ended because the children had grown past it.
Most of the original Jones land, along Denton Creek, was taken by eminent domain in the 1940s for Grapevine Lake. Most of it is under water now. I wrote about the lake and what it cost the people who farmed here in how Southlake got its name.
One more thing, because it deserves saying: Bob’s sons — the Jones brothers — opened a livestock sales barn in this area with an integrated café. The Historical Society’s timeline dates it to 1949; another of its pages says 1948, and I have not been able to settle which. Either way: an integrated café, in Texas, in the 1940s.
There is no Texas Historical Commission marker for Bob Jones, and no Handbook of Texas entry. The authoritative sources are the City of Southlake and the Southlake Historical Society, and I have attributed accordingly throughout. Given the significance, a state marker application strikes me as a worthy community project.
Southlake’s best-kept secret, and it is not small.
Worth understanding what “Cross Timbers” means, because it explains the whole area. The Eastern Cross Timbers is a belt of post oak and blackjack oak woodland that separates the Blackland Prairie from the Grand Prairie. It is why people settled here — timber, water and land a plow could work — and, per the Historical Society’s own timeline, why the Tonkawa and Hasinai Caddo were here before anyone surveyed a lot line. When you walk those trails you are walking the last unconverted piece of it in this city.
Nearly 500 acres. Thirteen soccer fields, some lit. A girls’ softball complex. Four softball fields and three multipurpose fields that got new artificial turf in 2024. A six-acre fishing pond with a bat-wing pavilion. An equestrian area with trailer parking, corral pens and hitching posts — which tells you something about what this place was. Boo Boo’s Buddies Dog Park, two and a half acres, going since 2006. Playground, amphitheater, trails.
About 82 contiguous acres, and the city calls it “Southlake’s premier park and… the first land the city set aside just for park use.” Acquisition began in the 1970s, and the City dates the dedication to 4 July 1976 — hence the name. It was then developed in three phases between 2011 and 2021.
What is in it: baseball and softball diamonds including a 60/90 field, the nine-court Southlake Pickleball Complex that opened in February 2024, the Southlake Tennis Center with enclosed courts, a synthetic turf field, basketball, playground, trails, pavilions, fishing areas — and the Texas Rangers Miracle League Field, an accessible baseball field.
Also Liberty Gardens, and a sculpture called “Remembrance and Renewal” by Mark Weisbeck — fifteen feet of stainless steel and brass, unveiled 24 May 2023.
People mix up the names constantly, to the point where the City has an FAQ entry about it. So: The Marq Southlake is the whole facility at 285 Shady Oaks Drive. It was built in two phases and each phase has its own name.
| Phase | Name | Opened | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | Legends Hall | December 2015 | 23,000+ sq ft of event space |
| II | Champions Club | April 2019 | over 82,000 sq ft |
Legends Hall holds the Traditions Ballroom — nearly 5,000 square feet with a stage and dance floor — plus meeting space, a catering kitchen, a Senior Activity Center, and the Aria outdoor amphitheater.
Champions Club is the recreation half: fitness floor and studios, performance training, a gymnasium, an indoor walking and jogging track, an aquatics center with indoor pool, an indoor playground, party rooms and child watch.
Phase II is the interesting one financially. It was funded through the City’s Community Enhancement Development Corporation using a three-eighths-cent Type A sales tax — which the City is careful to note meant no additional tax increase for Southlake residents. That is the kind of thing worth knowing about how this city funds itself: an 82,000-square-foot rec center paid for largely by people shopping here, a lot of whom do not live here.
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Parks | 20 |
| Parkland and open space | ~1,100–1,200 acres |
| Athletic fields | 44 |
| Tennis courts | 21 |
| Pavilions | 14 |
| Ponds | 11 |
| Playgrounds | 7 |
The City publishes “more than 1,100 acres” on one page and “approximately 1,200” on another, so I have given the range rather than pick. An older city profile breaks it down as 628 acres of park land plus access to 577 acres of natural open space.
On trail mileage I have to be straight with you: the City does not publish a citywide total anywhere I can find. What it does publish is 483,067 linear feet of sidewalk — almost 92 miles — added since 2009, and the more than 20 miles of hiking trail inside the Bob Jones preserve. If you want the exact trail figure, Parks and Recreation is on (817) 748-8019.
The park names are worth reading as a history lesson, which is the thing I did not expect when I started looking. Lonesome Dove Park, McPherson Park, Bob Jones Park, Frank Edgar Cornish IV Park, Royal and Annie Smith Park, Liberty Park at Sheltonwood. Southlake names its parks after the people and places that were here first, which for a city that built most of itself after 1990 is a genuinely deliberate choice.
The City runs a Lunar New Year festival, a Hispanic Heritage Celebration, and a Diwali Fest, alongside a July 3rd fireworks show and a tree lighting with a three-lane snow tubing hill. For a city of 31,000 in North Texas that is a genuinely notable line-up, and it lines up with the Census finding that 15.6 percent of Southlake is Asian alone.
Details on those, plus Art in the Square and the rest of what happens downtown, are in Southlake Town Square.
John Dolford 'Bob' Jones was born in 1850 and enslaved by his own father. The Southlake Historical Society documents it from the 1850 Arkansas slave schedule, which lists a woman named Elizabeth and three children including Bob as the property of Leazer Alvis Jones — Bob's father. The Society records the family's own account that his father 'set him free' in 1865 — the year slavery actually ended in Texas, at Juneteenth. Jones drove cattle on the Chisholm Trail, then built a ranch on the Denton-Tarrant county line and became one of the largest landowners in the area, holding 1,000 to 2,000 acres free and clear. He married Almeady Chisum in 1875, had ten children, and died on Christmas Day 1936 with nearly 500 people at his funeral. Southlake named Bob Jones Road, Bob Jones Park and the Bob Jones Nature Center and Preserve for him.
A one-room school that Bob Jones had built in 1920 for Black children in the area, including his own grandchildren, who could not attend segregated schools. Per the Southlake Historical Society he donated an acre to the county and had his sons and sons-in-law build it. Per the Society it closed in 1951 because its remaining students — fewer than ten — were moving up to junior and senior high. Walnut Grove Elementary School, a Carroll ISD campus that opened in 2011, carries the name forward.
758 acres, including more than 700 acres of Cross Timbers habitat, with more than 20 miles of hiking trails ranging from a quarter mile to nearly two miles each. Over 1,100 species of flora and fauna have been identified on the property. It opened in 2008 on part of the original Jones homestead. Trails are open daily from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., or 7 to 5 in winter, and the site runs nature programming and a Cross Timbers Forest Preschool.
About 20 parks covering somewhere between 1,100 and 1,200 acres of parkland and open space — the City publishes both figures on different pages. The inventory includes 44 athletic fields, 21 tennis courts, a nine-court pickleball complex opened in February 2024, 14 pavilions, 11 ponds and 7 playgrounds. The two largest are Bob Jones Park at nearly 500 acres and Bicentennial Park at about 82 acres, plus the separate 758-acre Bob Jones Nature Center and Preserve.
A city-owned recreation and events complex at 285 Shady Oaks Drive, built in two phases with separate names that people mix up constantly. Phase I is Legends Hall, opened December 2015, with more than 23,000 square feet of event space including the Traditions Ballroom, a Senior Activity Center and the Aria outdoor amphitheater. Phase II is Champions Club, opened April 2019, over 82,000 square feet of fitness, aquatics, gymnasium, indoor track and indoor playground. Champions Club was funded through the City's Community Enhancement Development Corporation using a three-eighths-cent Type A sales tax, with no additional tax increase for residents.
The City does not publish a citywide trail total on any page I can find, so I am not going to invent one. What is published: 483,067 linear feet of sidewalk, almost 92 miles, added since 2009, and more than 20 miles of hiking trail inside the Bob Jones Nature Center and Preserve alone. For the exact figure, the Southlake Parks and Recreation department is on (817) 748-8019, and the trail network is mapped in the Southlake 2035 Parks, Recreation and Open Space Master Plan and the city's Pathways Comprehensive Plan Map.
Looking at Southlake with kids, or a dog, or a horse trailer? Tell me which of these matters most to you and I will tell you which neighborhoods actually back up to it. Proximity to Bob Jones Park is not the same thing as an address that says Southlake, and on a Saturday morning you will feel the difference.
Ask me about SouthlakeChecked September 2026. Where local sources disagree on a date or a figure I have said so in the text rather than quietly picking one. Tax rates, school ratings and boundaries all change — verify anything you are relying on with the city, the district or the appraisal district.
REALTOR® · BHHS PenFed Realty Texas
I help buyers and sellers across the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex — Fort Worth, Burleson, Crowley and Keller, and the surrounding Dallas area. I write these because they are the questions I answer on the phone every week, and most people never get a straight answer to them. If you have one I have not covered, ask me — I will probably turn it into the next post.