Beautiful in the fall! a great place to relax and picnic! Also a good rest stop for those doing the lake loop bike trail

I love this garden. A friend recommended that I host a small event here and I fell in love immediately. Its a small and cozy park with lots of green and of course a gazebo if you want a more private setting.

Did you know that Orton Park was the first established park in the village of Madison in the late 1800s? It also served as Madisons first graveyard in the 1850s. Graves were moved to a different, larger graveyard before they converted the spot into a park. Look it up! Its a fascinating read.

A beautiful open park in the marquette neighborhood. Large 100+ year old oak trees, a small playground, and a beautiful pavilion. Large open spaces to run and play games. Interestingly it was the original graveyard for the city. The bodies have since been moved.

Great place to hang out and throw a frisbee! A nice gazebo in the middle. Logs and benches to sit at. Other recreational facilities.

Cute little park near the lake and downtown. Oak trees provide shade over the entire park and a gazebo sits to the side as a focus point

Lovely garden area with native plants, gazebo, playground with inclusive swings and plenty of grassy space to hang out or for kids to run and play.

Great park and close to the bike path. So much fun!

Very sweet little city park. Lots of shade, nice playground, gazebo. No bathrooms.

Beautiful slice of nature within the city. Quite sizable too. More than enough space for most activitys.

This park has the most shade of any in Madison. It is a wonderful Oak Savanna with a big gazebo swings and a Playset for kids.

Nice park with playground, gazebo, and lots of green space. Basketball court, lots of benches in a lovely neighborhood. Shaded playground area is nice in the summer.

Orton Park fesitval. Another great park in Madison with free music festival. We wemt for 2 days. 1st happy hour on Friday half price beer and wine and great music from Slow Pulp. Saturday stopped in after bike ride around the lake.

Live bongos. Does anyone know how often they play ?

Nice, peaceful little park. Lots of shade trees and gardens

This was my childhood playground! Great big park with lots of trees, basketball court and gazebo. Even space for a baseball or kickball game!

Tall trees. Has a kiosko. Lake is pretty closeNice playground

Orton Park occupies the whole of Block 180 as it appeared in the original plat map of Madison. The hears of the Four Lakes Region, Madison as a place settled by Europeans officially became a village in 1846, and two years later Block 180 was selected as the official cemetery. When Madison became a city in 1857 was purchase for a new and bigger cemetery, which is now Forest Hill Cemetery, a city park. In 1877 all burials that could be found were moved from this old “village cemetery” and re-interred at Forest Hill. (One of them was a great great grandfather of mine!) In 1883 the site was made Madison’s first official city park. It was named for Harlow South Orton, a former mayor who was a state supreme court justice at the time. Officially opened in 1887, Orton Park was the citys only public park until the Madison Parks and Pleasure Drive Association started their campaign to add more parks in the 1890s. Former Mayor Orton himself is buried in Section 2, Lot 073, Grave 1 of Forest Hill Cemetery. In the 1980s, a space in Orton Park was temporarily home to the sculpture “Gay Liberation” by George Segal, which is now in Christopher Park in the West Village. I lived half a block away during the time that sculpture was in place, and a small set of hardcore homophobes vandalized it several times. All in all, the neighborhood is a splendid place to live, and the business that had made the biggest stink about the sculpture has moved away and the building where they had been is now home to the restaurant “A Pig in a Fur Coat,” which I have also reviewed. This park has some fine examples of fully mature trees of species that are hallmarks of the forests of Wisconsin. Good population of squirrels, and Ive seen owls and more than one species of hawk in the trees.

Orton Park is another excellent City of Madison park, very clean and beautiful. Orton park fest is one of the oldest city festivals at 40+ years. Certainly a great festival to attend.

My son really enjoyed it.

Good, classic East side park. :-)

Definitely my favorite park of Madison. Makes me feel like Im back in time!

Love the giant oak trees that shade this park, but it can be tough to find parking. The main play structure is a little too big for my almost two year old, but great for older kids and we love the logs for climbing on!

Huge towering trees provide impressive ambiance and great shade throughout. Good grassy room to run around for simple sports or a picnic. Playground for kids is decent but is getting a bit dated and dirty, it could use some love. Fun summer festival.

Beautiful old oak trees. A wonderful Madison park in the heart of Madisons best neighborhood.

Great place to have grandkids birthday parties.

A great small neighborhood park

Orton Park is just sort of magical! Love the Orton Park Festival best of all!

Most of the year its a nice park in an quiet, older residential neighborhood with a gazebo. For a few days at the end of summer it turns into a festival with aerial dance performances in the large oak tree. Truly one of the most amazing things I have ever seen (which inspired me to take classes with, and join the group that puts on the show) If you have a chance, definitely go see it!

Great place to be this weekend with the music festival and the very nice weather.

A relaxing, historical, quiet park where your brain tricks you as to what century youre in.

Best Friday night Ive had in years.

Great park!

Cycropia Arial Arts @ Orton Park Festival!

Its real nice

Great community kept greenspace.

This park is the jewel of the city

Ir was beautiful and the people in the area was terrific

This park is great. Huge old trees, lots of picnic areas, a gazeebo, good playground. Nice place to spend time.

Beautiful park in beautiful Willy Street neighborhood.

Great time at the festival.

This event has been AWESOME. The entertainment off the hook. Kudos to you Madison East Side and also to all of your sponsors, you did good at the Orton Park Neighborhood Festival

You never know.

We dont get to Orton Park often, but each summer we love to see Cycropia perform in the big burr oak tree in the park. Its magical!Theres nice playground equipment with shredded tires covering the ground, a water fountain, gazebo and other play structures. A very nice park.

Nice lil park

Pretty

Cool little park! Big oak trees! Nice for a short walk at dusk.

Safe and family place.

Pretty neighborhood park covering an entire city block surrounded by cute, well-maintained homes. A big dead-zone gazebo sits near the middle with a few giant oaks scattered around. Lots of neighborhood events are held there like the Orton Park Festival, an Easter egg hunt, and summer camp.

Great park in a quiet neighborhood.

Beautiful shady park. Great playground for kids, good for slacklining and soccer. Theres an open space for Frisbee, football, kickball, or baseball, and a basketball court. Lastly a beautiful gazebo.

Nice playground with plenty of shade. Space to toss a frisbee, play some soccer or shoot some hoops on the basketball court. Also home to Madisons best summer festival.

A comfortable recluse in an historic residential neighborhood on the East Side of Madison Wisconsin.

Lovely place. Wonderful tree hugging folks.

Lovely little park with a nice play structure and few swing sets. Plenty of open grass for frisbee, Etc.

Super fun but too many bugs

Nice green trees, nice to bring a towel and lay around all day doing nothing but chilling with your buds.

Love the canopy of trees

Great neighborhood park with great events!

Nice park in the city

This is a fine park. Huge trees.

Beautiful little park that is wonderfully taken care of by the neighborhood and host a number of special events.

Really good park, its big and it has a basketball court

Feels smaller than it is. What a wonderful neighborhood festival!

Great neighborhood park. Good place for festivals when they occur here occasionally.

Is fun place to take my kids and is close to my home cool parties

I love this quant little park. Awesome neighborhood. The Orton park festival is a blast.

Very cute, spacious park. Nice gazebo, playground, open space, and nice old trees.

Really nice neighborhood park. Not a destination, but if you live in the area, its an awesome part of that section of the near east side

Its Orton park!

Always happy to spend time in Orton Park.

Nice little east side park with a gazebo

Great views, historic location.

A small and scenic park.

Awesome playground, basketball court and gazebo

A cool park

Outdoor fest

What a park!

Fun

Great for kids, picnics, and chillin!

I and my brothet and two sisters grew up at this park

Not great for fishing. Street runoff

In the fall people rake leaves so kids can jump in them.

Local favorite

The best for kids.