Ross Playground is located in the Fremont neighborhood at 325 NW 44th Street. It is 2.3 acres.
Olmsted Brothers’ 1903 Comprehensive Plan recommended building independent playgrounds in addition to an interconnected park and parkway system. They urged the city to secure land “where there are opportunities for playgrounds.”
In 1909 the board of parks commissioners acquired the north half of this site to establish a playground. At the time, the Ross school still occupied the south half of the block, but by 1940 the building was gone and the property leased to the Parks department for park purposes.
The park is named after John D. Ross, an early pioneer who homesteaded in 1853. The early settlement was called Ross and by 1900 had its own school district and seminary.