It was bequeathed to the city in 1862, and includes a children's playground, a rose garden, a large fountain system made of columnar basalt, the Salmon Run Bell Tower, and the historic Slocum House.

The park was part of this land, bequeathed as a public plaza by Esther after Amos died in a shipwreck at the mouth of the Columbia.

[citation needed] A 1996 Columbian article named the park as the nucleus of the majority of emergency 911 calls in the city.

[9] According to reports, a transient individual pushed Pollard in the back with a shopping cart, and made threatening comments warning him to leave.

[9] In the summer of 2007, the property received the "Development of Excellence" award from the Urban Land Institute of Oregon and Southwest Washington.