Penguin Park Lakewood Greenway

Kansas City, Missouri, United States

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Animals and creatures

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

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Penguin Park, in Lakewood Greenway in Kansas City's Northland, is named for a fibreglass penguin that parks supervisor Vernon Jones decided in 1965 to build. KCUR gave its height as 25 feet in 2014. Jones also made the park's giraffe, elephant and a kangaroo slide.

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Penguin Park Lakewood Greenway

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Approximate location · 39.183° N, 94.547° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

The playground at Vivion Road and North Norton Avenue in Kansas City's Northland takes its name from a hand-built fibreglass penguin, one of a set of oversized animals made by a city parks supervisor in the 1960s.

According to Kansas City Parks, the park began as part of Lakewood Greenway, land the department acquired in 1957. Vernon Jones, supervisor for the north parks district, had built figures for the Santa's Wonderland display in Gillham Park. After another employee made a miniature penguin for that display, Jones decided to build a large one. Jones decided in 1965 to build a large one. It was placed on the northern part of the greenway and, the department says, was a hit. He went on to make a giraffe, an elephant and a kangaroo for the same site.

KCUR reported in 2014 that the penguin is fibreglass and stands 25 feet tall; Visit KC gives 23 feet. Jones was self-taught, and Mark McHenry told KCUR the department built much of its own playground equipment in those days. McHenry said he was not sure why Jones picked a penguin.

The animals were once more playable than they are now. KCUR said the penguin used to be a slide that children climbed inside, and the giraffe once had a swing hanging from its neck; changes over the years were made for safety and structural integrity. As of 2014, it described the kangaroo as a slide that can be climbed. Jones came out of retirement in the 1980s to repair water damage to the penguin, and in the 1990s a Save Penguin Park campaign raised money for renovations and a pavilion. The corner of the greenway, long known informally as Penguin Park, was officially renamed in December 1998.

Kansas City Parks lists the park at 4101 NE Vivion Road, with a playground and a shelter, and open from 5 am to midnight daily.

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WHAT TO EXPECT

A neighbourhood playground with large fibreglass animals, a shelter and trails in Lakewood Greenway. KCUR described the kangaroo in 2014 as a climbable slide; KCUR reported in 2014 that the penguin, once a slide, had been modified for safety. Kansas City Parks lists the park as open 5 am to midnight daily.

ACCESS

At the corner of North Norton Avenue and Vivion Road in Kansas City's Northland; Kansas City Parks gives the address as 4101 NE Vivion Road. It is a public city park, listed as open 5 am to midnight daily.

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5.6 km away

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