Next to Hot Dog Heaven and Northside Elementary School is Warfield Park,
a 3.6 acre park located in the South Middle River neighborhood of Ft. Lauderdale off of Sunrise Boulevard. It has the historic distinction of being the oldest park in Ft. Lauderdale. The park was created in February of 1911 by the Florida Fruit Co. one month before the city was chartered. The park is named in honor of S. Davies Warfield, an American railroad executive and banker primarily remembered for extending the Seaboard Air Line Railway into South Florida in the 1920s and for connecting the east and west coasts of Florida by rail. Amtrak trains still travel from Central Florida to South Florida on the route he built. He was also the uncle of Wallis Warfield Simpson who married King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom after he abdicated the throne to be with her.
Today you can visit Warfield Park behind the Warfield Community Center. Park amenities include an athletic field, basketball court, playground, recreation center, and restroom. The gate is locked near the parking lot but if you walk down the sidewalk there is an opening to the park.
While I appreciate this history of the park I wasn't as thrilled with the many homeless hanging about. While they weren't on the playground where the children were playing they were all around the community center which you had to walk around to reach the park. It didn't feel safe. read more