Turtle Playground Forest Park

St. Louis, Missouri, United States

Animals and creatures

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

Turtle Playground is a concrete sculpture park of climbable turtles, oversized eggs and a snake at the southern edge of Forest Park, St. Louis, opened in 1996. Bob Cassilly sculpted it, Richard Claybour designed the park, and philanthropist Sonya “Sunny” Glassberg funded it.

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Turtle Playground Forest Park

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Site-level location · 38.6339° N, 90.2932° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Turtle Playground is a sculpture park meant to be climbed: Forest Park Forever calls it “a magnet for children of all ages who love climbing on the backs of the giant reptiles.”

It sits on the south side of Interstate 64/US 40 but is part of Forest Park, reached by the Tamm Avenue overpass near the Saint Louis Zoo parking lot. St. Louis Public Radio called the site, before 1996, a “once-lonely strip across Highway 40 from the zoo.”

The idea came from the philanthropist Sonya “Sunny” Glassberg, nicknamed “the Turtle Lady,” whose children often brought live turtles home. A 2013 obituary says she commissioned the sculptor Bob Cassilly, founder of City Museum, to fashion the creatures and the architect Richard Claybour to design the park. It opened in 1996. Forest Park Forever credits Cassilly as creator and Claybour as designer, while a 2022 Jewish Light article says Cassilly designed and sculpted it.

The concrete figures include a snapping turtle, a soft-shelled turtle, a red-eared slider, a Mississippi map turtle, three box turtles and a stinkpot. There are seven oversized eggs, three with hatching baby turtles, and a long snake that appears to be taking a bite out of the overpass. Forest Park Forever says the sculptures range from seven to forty feet in length. The St. Louis Regional Arts Commission counts three large and four small turtles, named for Glassberg’s children and grandchildren, and the Jewish Light reports that each turtle has a small plaque.

The park has had upkeep since. In 2015 a Mysun Charitable Foundation grant paid for new footpath surfaces, turf, irrigation and a drinking fountain. In 2021 the adjoining Oakland Avenue Playground opened with a wooden turtle made from tree stumps, as a nod to the sculptures. A June 2025 essay called Turtle Playground a “well-loved sculpture park across a bridge from the St. Louis Zoo.” Forest Park Forever lists its hours as 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

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PRACTICAL

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WHAT TO EXPECT

Children climb on the concrete turtles, eggs and snake. The Oakland Avenue Playground, renovated in 2021, adjoins it. Forest Park Forever lists hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. A 2015 upgrade added a year-round drinking fountain with a bottle filler.

ACCESS

Along Oakland Avenue south of the Saint Louis Zoo and Interstate 64, part of Forest Park. Forest Park Forever says it is reached by the Tamm Avenue overpass near the Saint Louis Zoo parking lot. It is a city park.

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