Pilot Park

Pilot Park is located in the historic district on approximately 1.81 acres and is a little over .25 miles east of downtown Monroe at 515 East Church Street. It was the first park to receive a full rehabilitation in our city, and was reopened to the public in October of 2020. The rehabilitation included new ADA compliant playground equipment, benches, picnic tables, trash receptacles, swings, fencing, entrance signage, walkways, and landscaping! The project was completely funded by a portion of the SPLOST 2019 collections as voted on by Walton County voters! The final completed cost for the park rehabilitation was approximately $423,232 which included the installation of a restroom facility in early 2022.

The park is also home of the first Pinwheel placed in the parks in Monroe and Walton County representing the awareness  for child abuse prevention by A Child's Voice organization, which is a chapter of PCA Georgia in Walton County. The pinwheel was sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Monroe and will remain a symbol representing the most precious thing there is, the everlasting voice of a child.

The park currently sits on the site of the Monroe High School that was built after Joseph H. Felker donated the land on September 3, 1900. Citizens on September 26, 1906 voted to establish the Monroe Public School System which then embraced the facility into the system. The school building served as the high school for most of its early years, though it included elementary grades, and later for elementary grades only. The school building was demolished in 1964, and sometime after the park began to take its original shape. It was not originally named for the Pilot Club, as it was referred to as the Church Street Playground. The Pilot Club purchased equipment over several years during the late 1960's and early 1970's, where at some point the investment reached a level that justified the park being named for the club. During the excavation and grading work in 2020, City workers uncovered the original cornerstone monument for the Monroe High School building that was built in 1900, as the monument had set under existing play equipment since 1964. This cornerstone, along with other historical monuments will continue to be on display at the park entrance on High School Avenue. For more information on the park and other historical elements of Monroe, visit our Visitors Center and Monroe Museum!

As a brief history of the namesake organization, Pilot International was chartered on October 18, 1921 in Macon, Georgia by Elizabeth Leonard and forty (40) local businesswomen. The Monroe chapter of the Pilot Club was chartered on August 18, 1954 with Josephine Whitley as the first president. By 1954 the number of Pilot members had increased to 9,900. Membership hit an all-time high of 20,877 in 1985. The name Pilot was inspired by the mighty riverboat pilots of the day and represented both leadership and guidance. The principles of the organization are friendship and service, with the mission being to influence positive change in communities throughout the world.  To do this, we come together in friendship and service, focusing on encouraging brain safety and health and supporting those who care for others. The current emblem is that of a green and gold riverboat pilot’s wheel with eight spokes.