The Other Atlantic City: Parks, Memorials and Hidden Places You May Have Driven Past 100 Times

Hey Folks,

When somebody says Atlantic City, you probably think Boardwalk, beach, casinos, restaurants and concerts. But here’s something I’ve been thinking about: how many of Atlantic City’s parks have you actually visited? Once you start looking, you realize there are parks, playgrounds, athletic fields, memorials and waterfront spaces all over this city, and many of them have stories that go much deeper than you’d expect. There are places honoring veterans, neighborhood parks named for Atlantic City residents, a Civil Rights Garden, the New Jersey Korean War Memorial, community recreation areas, ballfields, waterfront spaces and even a historic former airfield. These places aren’t simply green spaces. Together, they tell part of the story of Atlantic City. So if you’re looking for different things to do in Atlantic City, let’s get off the Boardwalk for a while and take a tour.

O’Donnell Memorial Park: You Could Spend an Hour Just Reading the Monuments

O’Donnell Memorial Park in Atlantic City.

O’Donnell Memorial Park is one of those places thousands of us drive around without realizing how much history is sitting right in front of us. The park contains several memorials recognizing military service and Atlantic City residents who served their country, and its monuments make it feel almost like an outdoor history museum. The World War I Memorial — the distinctive classical temple many of us have passed countless times — was constructed in 1922, and the park’s memorial landscape has continued to evolve through the generations. More recently, the Bernie Friedenberg World War II Memorial was dedicated on June 6, 2024, the 80th anniversary of D-Day, honoring Atlantic City native and U.S. Army combat medic Staff Sergeant Bernard “Bernie” Friedenberg and the Americans who served during World War II. If you’ve never actually gotten out of the car and walked O’Donnell, do it sometime. Read the names, look closely at the monuments and remember that this isn’t just landscaping around a traffic circle. It’s one of Atlantic City’s most important places of remembrance.

Brighton Park: A Statewide Memorial Right on the Boardwalk

The New Jersey Korean War Memorial along the Atlantic City Boardwalk,

Right where Park Place meets the Boardwalk is Brighton Park, home to the New Jersey Korean War Memorial. The memorial was dedicated in 2000 on land donated by Atlantic City and honors the New Jersey men and women who served during the Korean War. Its sculptures and memorial elements create a striking contrast with the entertainment district surrounding it, and that’s part of what makes the location so powerful. Think about how many visitors walk past this area every year on their way to a casino, restaurant or show without realizing they’re passing one of New Jersey’s major veterans memorials. That’s Atlantic City in a nutshell: entertainment and history have always lived side by side here. The next time you’re walking this section of the Boardwalk, take a few minutes and actually step inside instead of simply passing it.

Gardner’s Basin: Atlantic City’s Other Waterfront

If you’ve been coming to Atlantic City for years and have never made it over to Gardner’s Basin, you’re missing an entirely different side of town. Instead of the ocean and Boardwalk, you’ve got boats, marinas and the back-bay waterfront, and the whole area has a completely different pace. At the center of the Basin is the Atlantic City Aquarium, which reopened after a major renovation, giving families another reason to rediscover this corner of the city. The Basin’s marina activity and waterfront setting remind you that Atlantic City has always been a maritime community, not simply a casino resort. I’ve always liked Gardner’s Basin because it’s one of the easiest places to take somebody who’s visited Atlantic City a dozen times and show them something they didn’t expect. You can be only minutes from the Boardwalk and feel like you’ve arrived somewhere completely different.

Fisherman’s Park: A Neighborhood Park With a Different Mission

Fisherman’s Park in the Inlet is a good example of how a neighborhood green space can become more than a traditional playground. Community efforts in the area have included gardening, native plantings and environmental improvements designed to bring residents together while connecting the neighborhood to its waterfront identity. That’s what I like about places like Fisherman’s Park: they’re not built primarily for tourists. They’re pieces of a living neighborhood. If you’re interested in what’s happening throughout the Inlet, the Inlet Community Development Corporation is worth checking out because many of the projects in this part of Atlantic City have come from partnerships between residents, organizations and the city.

Oscar E. McClinton Jr. Waterfront Park: One of the Quiet Ones

At 201 North New Hampshire Avenue you’ll find Oscar E. McClinton Jr. Waterfront Park, an Atlantic County park overlooking the water. The Atlantic County park system lists fishing access, playground space, pavilion facilities and scenic views among the park’s attractions. Sometimes that’s exactly what you want in Atlantic City — especially when you’re in a town known for lights, music and action. A little grass, some water and a place to sit can be a pretty good Atlantic City afternoon too. If you’re already exploring Gardner’s Basin, Absecon Lighthouse and the Inlet, this is an easy place to add to the trip.

Altman Park: A Neighborhood Park Gets New Life

Altman Park is another Inlet recreation space that’s been getting renewed attention, including the addition of Atlantic City’s first city-run dog park in 2025. That’s something I like seeing because parks need to evolve with the people who use them. Today’s Atlantic City resident or visitor might be looking for basketball, pickleball, a place to bring the kids or somewhere to let the dog stretch its legs. Public spaces work best when people actually use them, and investments in neighborhood parks can make a difference far beyond the boundaries of the park itself. It’s also another reason visitors exploring the Inlet should slow down and look around rather than heading directly back to the casino district.

Uptown Skate Park: A New Generation Gets Its Own Place

One of Atlantic City’s newer recreation spaces is Uptown Skate Park on North Massachusetts Avenue, created through collaboration involving Skate AC, the City of Atlantic City and the Inlet Community Development Corporation. I like this project because it proves a park doesn’t always need swings, picnic tables and a baseball diamond to serve a neighborhood. Different generations recreate differently. Skateboarders deserve a place to practice, meet up and spend time just like baseball players, basketball players and kids on playgrounds. It’s also a reminder that Atlantic City’s park story isn’t only about preserving the past. Some of these spaces are about creating something new for the next generation.

Absecon Lighthouse: Green Space With 228 Steps at the End

Absecon Lighthouse in Atlantic City.

While we’re exploring the Inlet, you can’t leave out the grounds surrounding Absecon Lighthouse, one of Atlantic City’s great historic outdoor destinations. First lit in 1857, Absecon Lighthouse stands 171 feet tall and is New Jersey’s tallest lighthouse. Visitors willing to climb 228 steps can reach the top and see the lighthouse’s original first-order Fresnel lens, but there’s plenty to explore at ground level too, including the Keeper’s Cottage, museum, Oil House and surrounding grounds. This is one of my favorite examples of combining outdoor space with Atlantic City history because you aren’t simply reading about the city’s maritime past — you’re standing inside it. And if you’ve got the legs for those 228 steps, the view gives you an entirely different perspective on the city.

Pop Lloyd Stadium: A Legendary Atlantic City Name

Pop Lloyd Stadium carries the name of John Henry “Pop” Lloyd, one of the legendary figures of Negro League baseball, and the facility entered a new era following a multimillion-dollar renovation completed in 2025. The improvements transformed the stadium into a modern multipurpose sports facility capable of hosting far more than baseball, expanding the ways Atlantic City’s young athletes and recreation programs can use the property. That’s the kind of investment that matters because it connects Atlantic City’s sports history with the kids growing up here today. Pop Lloyd’s name belongs in conversations about the great players of baseball history, and having his name attached to a living, active athletic facility in Atlantic City keeps that connection alive. You can learn more about local sports and recreation programs through Atlantic City Recreation.

Texas Avenue Playground: There’s a Story Behind the Name

The Texas Avenue Playground at Fairmount and North Texas avenues is also associated with the Joseph McCabe and Gary Clark memorial names, and its history is exactly the kind of local story that can disappear if nobody keeps telling it. Joseph McCabe’s family has documented how he grew up in Atlantic City, loved sports and had a special devotion to the city’s children. Following his death in 1983, Atlantic City Council dedicated the playground in his memory. The park was later rebuilt following Hurricane Sandy with outside assistance and renewed recreational facilities for neighborhood children. You can read more of the family’s story at the Joseph McCabe Memorial Park website. This is what I mean when I say you should occasionally stop and ask why a person’s name is on a park. There’s usually a story behind that sign.

Harold R. Brown Memorial Park: Remembering an Atlantic City Serviceman

Harold R. Brown Memorial Park carries another important Atlantic City story. The park honors Harold R. Brown, remembered in local historical accounts for his World War II service and sacrifice, and the park underwent a major renovation before reopening in 2017. This is one of the themes that kept coming up as I looked deeper into Atlantic City’s parks: the city has embedded the memory of its own people into the landscape. A neighborhood park might look like basketball courts, playground equipment and grass when you’re driving past, but once you understand the name attached to it, the place takes on another meaning.

Horace Bryant Playground: Atlantic City Is Somebody’s Hometown

Horace Bryant Playground is one of Atlantic City’s smaller neighborhood recreation spaces, and no, you’re probably not planning a weekend getaway around a neighborhood playground. But that’s exactly why I’m including it. Places like this remind us that Atlantic City isn’t simply a tourism product. People live here. Kids grow up here. Families need basketball courts, playgrounds, benches and places to gather just like families everywhere else. We talk a lot about making Atlantic City better for visitors — and we should — but making Atlantic City better for the people who call it home matters just as much.

Pete Pallitto Field: A Neighborhood Facility Worth Watching

Pete Pallitto Field is another neighborhood recreation facility whose story continues to develop as Atlantic City looks at improvements to its public spaces. Athletic fields like this may not make the tourism brochures, but they matter enormously to the neighborhoods around them. They’re where kids learn a sport, coaches volunteer their time, families gather on weekends and generations of Atlantic City residents make memories. For updates on current park and recreation projects, the best starting point is the City of Atlantic City.

The Civil Rights Garden: One of Atlantic City’s Most Meaningful Stops

The Civil Rights Garden near Pacific Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard combines landscaping, sculpture and history in a public space devoted to America’s Civil Rights Movement. Its location in Atlantic City carries special meaning because this city has its own complicated civil-rights history, including segregated beaches and the stretch of shoreline remembered as Chicken Bone Beach. Atlantic City also hosted the 1964 Democratic National Convention, where the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party’s challenge over representation became an important episode in the broader struggle for voting and civil rights. When you walk through this garden, you’re not looking at history that happened only somewhere else. Atlantic City itself was part of that larger American story.

All-War Memorial: Another Piece of Atlantic City’s Military History

Atlantic City’s All-War Memorial is another example of how much military history is woven into the city’s public landscape. The Historic American Buildings Survey documented the memorial at Albany and Atlantic avenues, and those photographs are now preserved by the Library of Congress. That’s one of the things I love about digging into Atlantic City history: sometimes an old photograph gives you an entirely new appreciation for something you’ve driven past hundreds of times. The memorial connects the Atlantic City of today with generations of local residents who served their country, and it belongs in the same conversation as O’Donnell Park and Brighton Park when you’re exploring the city’s memorial spaces.

Bader Field: Is It a Park? Not Exactly — But What a Story

Bader Field appears in recreation and open-space discussions, although I wouldn’t describe the entire property as a conventional visitor park. What I would call it is one of the most historically interesting pieces of land in Atlantic City. The former Atlantic City Municipal Airport opened in 1919 and remained in operation until 2006, giving the site nearly nine decades of aviation history. And here’s one of my favorite Atlantic City trivia questions: the city has a historical claim connected to the early use of the word “airport.” The Atlantic City Free Public Library has documented the story, although the surviving historical record doesn’t definitively establish exactly who coined the term. Bader Field also has sports history, including use by the New York Yankees for wartime spring training. Whether you’re an aviation person, a baseball person or somebody who loves AC trivia, there’s a lot of history sitting on that property.

Chelsea Heights: Another Atlantic City Most Visitors Never See

The Annapolis Avenue Recreation Complex in Chelsea Heights represents another side of Atlantic City that visitors can easily miss. Chelsea Heights sits away from the familiar Boardwalk corridor, surrounded by the city’s back-bay environment, and its recreational spaces serve a residential neighborhood rather than the tourism district. Nearby waterways also remind you how geographically unusual Atlantic City really is: we’re talking about an island city surrounded not just by ocean but marshes, channels and back-bay ecosystems. You can visit Atlantic City for 20 years and barely see this side of town if your routine is Expressway, casino garage, Boardwalk and Expressway home. That’s exactly why I wanted it represented here. There’s an entire Atlantic City behind the Atlantic City most visitors know.

And There Are Even More Parks Hiding Around Town

Once you start digging through local recreation and open-space records, you discover just how extensive Atlantic City’s collection of public spaces really is. Depending on how parks, playgrounds, promenades, athletic facilities and open-space parcels are classified, you’ll find names such as Arizona Avenue & Bay Memorial Park, Boston Avenue Park, Lagoon Playground, Weeks Westside Memorial Park and numerous smaller recreation areas and waterfront spaces — not to mention Atlantic City’s enormous public beach. Some are tiny neighborhood spaces. Some are playgrounds rather than traditional parks. Some have changed names or uses over the years. Some aren’t places I’d necessarily tell a tourist to make a special trip to see. But taken together, they make the point: Atlantic City has a lot more public and recreational space than most people realize.

And Don’t Forget the Biggest Public Space of All: The Beach

We can talk about parks all day, but Atlantic City’s largest and most famous public recreational space is still the beach. And sometimes we forget what a remarkable asset that is because it’s been part of the city’s identity for so long. You can walk, swim, sit in the sand, watch the lifeguards, look out over the Atlantic and then step onto one of America’s most famous Boardwalks. That’s a pretty incredible public space sitting right outside the casino doors. For all the conversation about Jersey Shore attractions, sometimes the simplest attraction remains one of the best: sand, ocean and a summer day in Atlantic City.

Here’s My Atlantic City Park Challenge

Don’t try to see everything in one day. Pick the kind of Atlantic City you want to discover and start there. If you’re interested in military history, spend some time around O’Donnell Memorial Park and Brighton Park. If you’re bringing the family, head toward Gardner’s Basin and the Atlantic City Aquarium. If you’ve got a skateboarder in the family, check out Uptown Skate Park. If you’re interested in civil-rights history, visit the Civil Rights Garden. If you want quiet waterfront scenery, explore the Inlet and Oscar E. McClinton Jr. Waterfront Park. And if you’ve got the legs for 228 steps, climb Absecon Lighthouse and look back across the city from above. That’s a pretty good Atlantic City day without ever putting a quarter into a slot machine.

One City, A Lot of Stories

Folks, this is why I love doing stories like this. Everybody knows the Atlantic City on the postcards, but there’s another Atlantic City too. It’s the kid shooting baskets at a neighborhood playground. It’s somebody fishing along the Inlet. It’s a veteran stopping to read a name on a memorial. It’s a family walking around Gardner’s Basin. It’s skateboarders finally having a place of their own. It’s somebody sitting quietly beside the water only a few minutes from the casinos. And it’s generations of Atlantic City people whose names and stories are still attached to parks, fields, monuments and buildings all over town. That’s Atlantic City too. Maybe the next time you come into town, get off the Boardwalk for an hour and go find some of it.

Plan Your Own Atlantic City Park Tour

Park facilities, hours, access and construction can change, particularly at smaller neighborhood properties, so before making a special trip I recommend checking current information with the City of Atlantic City or Atlantic City Recreation. For a family stop, check the Atlantic City Aquarium; for history and one of the best views around, visit Absecon Lighthouse; and if you’re a history buff like me, spend some time digging through the Atlantic City Free Public Library’s local history resources. You may be surprised how many stories have been hiding in plain sight.

A Note About the Photos

I wanted the pictures in this story to be more than random images pulled off the internet. The photographs used above were selected from sources where reuse information is available. The Brighton Park Korean War Memorial and Atlantic City beach photographs are from Carol M. Highsmith’s archive at the Library of Congress and are listed with no known restrictions on publication. The Absecon Lighthouse photograph was released into the public domain by its photographer. The O’Donnell Memorial Park photograph is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license with the required photographer credit and license link. The historic All-War Memorial image comes from the Historic American Buildings Survey collection preserved by the Library of Congress. Wherever a photograph appears, I’ve identified what you’re actually looking at and credited the source rather than simply dropping in a generic Atlantic City picture.

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