Parks Director Chris Waite talks to a group at Brookstone Park.

Update: April 22, Parks Director Waite’s answers to Observer readers’ questions about the swimming pool and the origin of the park’s name have been added to the original article.

A tour of Brookstone Park Wednesday afternoon restarted the 52 in ’25 Park Tours launched by Richland’s Parks and Public Facilities Director Chris Waite earlier this year. The next tour will be at Amon Creek and Claybell Park on April 23 beginning at 5 p.m.

After chilly weather put a damper on the January tour of Trailhead Park, Waite said he decided to wait until spring to continue the tours. 

A small group gathered in Brookstone, 2800 Emerald St.  at the corner of Nottingham Drive in south Richland to hear Waite talk about facility. He described the two-and-a-half-acres as a neighborhood park, the smallest type in Richland which also includes larger community parks and regional parks.

Brookstone has a children’s playground with a grocery store theme, a basketball court, picnic tables and a large grassy area for tossing a frisbee or throwing a football.

Waite said during the tour that the park, built in about 2008, had a site reserved for a neighborhood pool, but it has never been built. According to Waite in an email to the Observer later about the current status of the pool, “…it was left in the plan so it is an option for the future if there is support for the idea.”

Waite also explained in the email how the park was named in 2007. Waite said that a subcommittee of the Parks and Recreation Commission solicited proposed names from the community and received three potential names.

Waite wrote, “Of these, three, they recommended the park be named Brookstone Park as it is an amalgamation of the names of the neighborhoods being served by the park.”

The city of Richland’s website includes a list of the 52 parks and the amenities included in each.