Long Meadow Park

Name: Long Meadow Park
Address: 917 Liberty St, Durham, NC 27701, USA, Durham, NC, US
Telephone: (919) 560-4355
Price range: $$
Rating: 3.8

917 Liberty St, Durham, NC 27701, USA

Overview

Category:Indoor Water Parks

Location:Durham, NC

Expert Summary

Detailed Insights

While Long Meadow Park offers a vibrant playground with slides and monkey bars, a picturesque natural stream for rock play, a community pool with a water slide, and baseball fields, its suitability for children is severely impacted by significant safety concerns. The presence of loitering adults, individuals smoking (cigs/pot) and drinking, and homeless encampments throughout the general park area makes it largely unsuitable for family playground visits. The community pool and baseball fields appear to be separate, more suitable options for children within the larger park complex.

Key Highlights

✓Vibrant and colorful playground structure featuring a half dozen slides and numerous monkey bars, offering ample climbing opportunities.
✓A unique and 'adorable' natural stream, likened to 'the Shire', where children (specifically mentioned one son) enjoy playing with rocks more than the playground.
✓A community pool is available, which includes a water slide and is described as a 'great place for your kids to play'.
✓Presence of baseball fields where 'young Durhamites' play, suggesting organized sports activities.

Standout Features

⭐Diverse playground equipment for active play.
⭐Unique natural stream environment for imaginative play.
⭐Community pool offering a water slide for aquatic fun.
⭐Facilities for organized baseball games.

Perfect For

The playground structure (slides, monkey bars) would typically appeal to active children, perhaps 5-12 years, but the severe safety concerns make it unsuitable.

The natural stream provides an engaging play area for younger children (e.g., 2-8 years) interested in nature and rock play, but again, safety concerns override.

The community pool with a water slide is generally suitable for a broad range of children, from toddlers (with supervision) to pre-teens and teens.

Baseball activities are suitable for school-aged children and teens.

Ideal For

Supervised visits to the community pool for swimming and water slide use.

Attending or participating in organized youth baseball games.

Parents seeking local pride (as per one outlier review) rather than a direct family activity for young children.

💡Pro Tips from Reviews

→If considering a visit, **ONLY consider the community pool or organized baseball activities** and completely avoid the general playground and stream areas due to safety concerns.
→Do not expect a safe, unsupervised playground experience for children.
→Parents should be aware of and prepared for the presence of homeless individuals, substance use, and loitering adults if visiting any part of the park.

Things to Consider

⚠The general park area is explicitly described as 'not a kid safe playground' and parents are strongly advised to 'DO NOT take your kids here' due to safety issues.
⚠Consistent presence of adults without children 'standing around smoking cigs or pot' and drinking alcohol.
⚠Multiple reports of homeless individuals, including some with tents set up 'under the pavilion like they were living there', drinking on benches.
⚠The park is perceived as 'claimed by adults' where 'some of the things done there shouldn't be around children'.
⚠Its location near the Durham Rescue Mission is cited as a reason for the prevalence of homeless people.
⚠Strong sentiment that the park 'needs to be policed' to ensure safety.

Price & Value

No pricing information is available from the reviews for any of the facilities (playground, stream, pool, baseball fields).

♿Accessibility & Special Needs

•No information regarding accessibility accommodations is mentioned in the reviews.

🍎Food & Drink Policy

•No information regarding food and drink policies is mentioned in the reviews.

🚗Parking Info

•No information regarding parking is mentioned in the reviews.

👥Crowd Levels

•The park consistently has a noticeable presence of adults without children, groups of men 'hanging around', and homeless individuals with tents, indicating a permanent presence of non-family crowds.

🛡️Safety Features

•Reviews explicitly state the park is 'not kid safe' and call for it to be 'policed', indicating a severe lack of official safety oversight, supervision, or measures in place for the general park areas.

⏰When to Avoid

• Bringing children to the general playground structure or the stream area under any circumstances, due to consistent safety warnings.
• Expectations of a traditional, safe, family-friendly public park experience.
• Allowing children to play unsupervised anywhere within the park grounds.

Pricing/Package/Events

Events & Schedule

Special Events(Last 2 months - Next 6 months)

Park Transformation Construction

Early September 2025 - Expected 2030

N/A

The City of Durham will begin transforming Long Meadow and East End Parks, a $42 million investment funded through the $85 million Parks and Recreation Bond overwhelmingly approved by voters in November 2024. The playground, picnic shelter, and basketball courts will close, and the park perimeter will be fenced. The baseball fields and adjacent parking lot will remain open for public use and reservations. Closures are necessary as survey and construction work begins.

📅Booking Policy

• Refer to the picnic shelter rentals page for complete details on renting the picnic shelter.
• Refer to the athletic rentals page for complete details on renting a field or court.
• Baseball fields and adjacent parking lot will remain open for public use and reservations from early September 2025 to 2030.

🚗Parking Information

• Adjacent parking lot available for baseball fields (will remain open during construction from early September 2025 to 2030).

Information extracted from official website • Last updated: Sep 29, 2025

What People Say

Areas for Improvement

Parking can be challenging (mentioned in 4 reviews)

Recent Reviews

Dan Thompson

3 years ago

Really fun playground structure, colorful and plenty of stuff to play on. A half dozen slides abs tons of monkey bars all around to climb on! The coolest part of this park though, is that it’s right next to an ADORABLE little stream that looks just like something straight outta the Shire from Lord of the Rings. My son enjoyed playing there with the rocks in the stream more than the playground. 😁👍 Only negative is this playground, like the two others we’ve visited here in Durham, are in the ghetto/projects/hood….and so there are always adults without kids standing around smoking cigs or pot, homeless people, groups of grown men just “hanging around” at all of these playgrounds we’ve visited in Durham so far… Draw your own conclusions… 😊 They also have a community pool here with a water slide! It IS a nice park, but because it’s location is so close to the Durham Rescue Mission, there are just a lot of homeless people that hang around at these Durham parks…

Ashley Meinert

a year ago

We pulled up and there was a homeless person sitting on the bench drinking. Under the pavilion there were multiple homeless people and had their tent setup like they were living there. This park needs to be policed. DO NOT take your kids here.

TheYoutubeMetaGamer

3 years ago

A place to chill and hangout, but not for kids take them to one of the other parks. The adults have claimed this one and some of the things done there shouldn't be around children. The pool however is a great place for your kids to play but avoid the park.