Tacoma's Parks - Hardcoverby Melissa McGinnis (Author), Doreen Beard Simpkins (Author), Metropolitan Park District of Tacoma (Author) When civic benefactor Clinton P. Ferry donated a graceful, elliptically shaped plot of land in 1883 for the first park in Tacoma, he hoped his adopted hometown would do him proud and become a veritable city of parks. The young community did not disappoint. Landmarks such as Wright Park, Lincoln Park, and Point Defiance Park graced the landscape