Both Tower Grove Park and the neighboring Missouri Botanical Garden were part of the estate of 19th-century businessman and botanist Henry Shaw.

Tower Grove Park was originally part of La Petite Prairie, which was settled by the French in the early 18th century.

The landscape includes a lily pond and formal plantings; the Piper Palm House, a bandstand, the site of music and other special events; as well as tennis courts; a wading pool for small children; open expanses of green; softball diamonds and soccer fields; paths for walkers, joggers, and cyclists, and tall specimen trees and a great variety of bushes.

[5] von Miller also produced a statue of the Italian navigator and explorer Christopher Columbus that was dedicated in 1886, and placed near the gates and entrance from Grand Avenue.

Mozart and Rossini by Howard Kretschmar from 1882, Beethoven and Wagner by Ferdinand von Miller from 1884, and Gounod and Verdi by Carlo Nicoli from 1886.

There is a smaller scale statue of Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, the German born military officer and American Revolution volunteer, near the Palm house.

Two zinc statues of stags, en couchant and on pedestals, face each other across Center Cross Drive, just west of the Piper Palm House.

It features local and organic farmers offering fresh produce and meats, baked goods and preserves, as well as prepared foods and drinks, teas and coffees, with stalls for craftsmen and artisans as well.