Located on a quiet corner in Old Boise, the C.W. Moore Park silently welcomes visitors to the few remaining relics of historic Boise. This peaceful graveyard of building remnants is a delightful place to catch your breath, sip a cup of coffee, read a book or quietly take in the magnificence of historic architecture. The back of the park is lined by a solid sandstone wall, quarried from nearby. Interjected into the wall at various points are corner stones and date stones from Boise’s past. Buildings that were demolished under protest, lost to future generations but held in memory with mortar and stone. Although the park itself is small, the message behind it is huge. The beauty of the C.W. Moore Park is the ease in which all architectural elements come together to create a serene and thought provoking park. The location of the park is of little surprise to historians. C.W. Moore, a prominent businessman in Boise deeded the lot to the city to have a children’s playground built on it. Initially, a playground was built on site, to soon be replaced by a home for crippled children and adults in the 1950’s. This was then followed by a community and youth center in the 1970’s, until it was finally rededicated as a park in 1983. The elements of the park are not as shocking as one might imagine. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, downtown Boise was undergoing an urban renewal. Unfortunately, this meant that the old buildings, so cherished by the citizens, would have to be demolished to make way for new, sleek and modern buildings. As more buildings were destroyed, citizens stepped forward to save pieces of Boise’s history. It soon became evident that the city would need somewhere to install all the saved stone and iron work into one location. C.W. Moore Park was the perfect fit. Located on the corner of 5th and Grove Street, it is a short distance from downtown and takes just a few minutes to enjoy. One side of the park is bordered by the former Grove Street canal system, which once watered a large number of fine homes on Grove Street. The waterwheel, from Morris Hill Cemetery demonstrates how the canal would have worked. The walls, as previously mentioned, were a perfect backdrop for stone pieces from former buildings. Cast iron streetlamps and building pieces were added, along with a brass map of Boise city. An archway, from the Bush building, beckons visitors into the park from one side, as a W.E. Pierce building turret, encourages visitors from the other entrance. Located on this turret is information about each element in the park, as well as C.W. Moore himself. Other fascinating elements exist also. Glass sidewalk blocks from Chinatown, Boise bricks, manhole covers, a compass and an old mining car are also located within the park. A beautiful place to visit in the fall, with the leaves changing color and the crunchy sound underfoot, it is also lovely in the spring, with the leaves just unfurling and the grass stretching back to shape. Summer finds the park with more visitors, enjoying ice cream cones while reading or listening to music. And in the winter, a light blanket of snow brings a somber note of finality to the lives of the buildings lost. Yet, through it all, hope springs daily as visitors are taught lessons of historic preservation and moderation in urban development. Perhaps future generations will learn from past mistakes and be able to strike a balance.