Guide
Evelyn's Park
The trees came first. In 1910 a horticulturist named Edward Teas moved his nursery from Missouri to Bellaire Boulevard, persuaded to come by the town's developers so he could carry out landscaping plans drawn by the landscape architect Sid Hare. Teas Nursery became Bellaire's first business. Over the following decades it landscaped historic Houston neighborhoods, the Bellaire Boulevard esplanade and the grounds of Rice University.
It lasted nearly a century. The nursery closed in December 2009, and for a while its five acres sat waiting for whatever came next.
A gift in their mother's name
What came next was a gift. Brothers Jerry and Maury Rubenstein bought the former nursery site and gave it to the City of Bellaire with two conditions: that it be used as parkland, and that it be named for their mother, Evelyn, a longtime Bellaire resident and philanthropist. ABC13, the Houston television station, described her simply as a lover of the outdoors.
Evelyn's Park opened on Earth Day, Saturday, April 22, 2017. It is funded both publicly and privately, and the Evelyn's Park Conservancy, a nonprofit, runs its programs and events.
One small piece of the nursery's story survives in the retelling. As ABC13 reported at the opening, the iconic yellow house on the property was painted with surplus paint that the railroad company offered the Teas family after ordering too much.
What's there
The city lists the basics: a natural surface trail, open green space, a pavilion and a playground area. The details are better than the list.
The playground is a natural one, built with reclaimed tree stumps and a ten-foot slide, the kind of place where children invent the game themselves. The stumps are not decoration borrowed from somewhere else. The conservancy counts the reuse of the original tree stumps among its sustainability work, alongside solar installations and the planting of more than 300 native trees, all in service of a stated goal of net zero.
There is art, too. A sculpture called Move One Place On hides more than 150 elements from the story of Alice in Wonderland, which makes it less a thing to look at than a thing to search. The Butterfly Wall, a community art project, recognizes the park's donors and highlights native insect species.
There is food on the grounds. Betsy's at Evelyn's Park, a café from Adair Concepts, the restaurant group run by the siblings Nick Adair and Katie Adair Barnhart, serves breakfast tacos, quiche and coffee in the morning and sandwiches, pizzas and salad bowls later in the day, with beer and wine. The park also works as an event space, with a venue, a catering kitchen and an event lawn that the conservancy rents for private gatherings.
A park on the site of a tree nursery ought to be about trees, and this one mostly is. The rest is open lawn, shade, and room to sit.
What happens there
Evelyn's Park keeps a busier calendar than its size suggests. In a typical month the conservancy lists tai chi, yoga, sound baths, art in the park and a children's circle time, along with pick-up days for a veggie share. Evenings bring live music, with Thursday evening performances and a Friday Night Live Music series on the conservancy's calendar.
The Bellaire Open Air markets are held on select Sundays, from noon to 4 p.m., with local artisans and small businesses selling outdoors. There is a fall market, and the conservancy has held a holiday edition in December. Check the conservancy's events page for the next date.
The year's big night is the conservancy's gala. For 2026 it is 90s in the Park, a retro evening of dinner, dancing, drinks and an auction on Saturday, October 17, 2026, from 6:30 to 11 p.m. It is ticketed, with sponsorship tiers, and the proceeds go to continued enhancements and improvements to the park.
Practical information
- Address: 4400 Bellaire Blvd., Bellaire, TX 77401. - Conservancy email: [email protected]. - Website and events calendar: evelynspark.org and evelynspark.org/events. - Hours: under city ordinance, the park is closed from midnight to 5 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, and from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. on all other nights. - City information: the City of Bellaire's Evelyn's Park page lists the amenities and the curfew rules.
Go on a weekday morning for the quiet and the shade, and on a market Sunday for the town. Either way, look down at the stumps. They were here first.
Sources
- Evelyn's Park Conservancy, About the Park: https://www.evelynspark.org/about-park - Evelyn's Park Conservancy, Events: https://evelynspark.org/events - Evelyn's Park Conservancy, Betsy's Cafe: https://evelynspark.org/cafe - Evelyn's Park Conservancy, Bellaire Open Air Fall Market: https://evelynspark.org/events/bellaire-open-air-fall-market-1 - Evelyn's Park Conservancy, Bellaire Open Air Holiday Market: https://evelynspark.org/events/bellaire-open-air-holiday-market-1 - Evelyn's Park Conservancy, 90s in the Park: https://evelynspark.org/90sinthepark - City of Bellaire, Evelyn's Park: https://bellairetx.gov/1760/Evelyns-Park - Handbook of Texas Online (Texas State Historical Association), "Bellaire, TX": https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/bellaire-tx - ABC13, Evelyn's Park opening: https://abc13.com/evelyn-park-opening-new-in-bellaire/1896212/
En español
Evelyn's Park ocupa cinco acres en 4400 Bellaire Boulevard, donde funcionó Teas Nursery, el primer negocio de Bellaire, de 1910 a 2009. Cuando el vivero cerró, los hermanos Jerry y Maury Rubenstein compraron el terreno y lo donaron a la ciudad con la condición de que fuera un parque con el nombre de su madre, Evelyn. El parque abrió el 22 de abril de 2017. Tiene un área de juegos natural hecha con troncos de árboles reutilizados y un tobogán de diez pies, más de 300 árboles nativos y una escultura con más de 150 elementos escondidos de Alicia en el país de las maravillas. Hay un café, Betsy's, música en vivo, mercados al aire libre en algunos domingos y una gala, 90s in the Park, el sábado 17 de octubre de 2026.