The Academy of Sciences initiated funding for a statue honoring Berzelius, which was to stand in the middle of the park.
As the new park installations were still considered too fragile to receive a large crowd, the statue was secretly inaugurated in the middle of the night following the opening ceremony.
Other monuments have been added in and around the park, including art by Carl Milles, and a humorous statue of Hans Alfredsson (seen sticking his head out of a sewer).
A report published in 1890 described its lawns as "consisting mostly of dandelions," and the raised area surrounding the statue as a "sand hill".
However, the situation improved when Alfred Medin became city gardener, and the same journalist later wrote enthusiastically about the park.