Musser Park, near the center of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has been called the city's jewel. It was donated by Harry M. Musser, who realized that Lancaster was in desperate need of green space. Musser Park is bounded by East Marion and East Chestnut streets; and North Shippen and North Lime streets. It covers 3.1 acres. The former Grubb Mansion, one of the few remaining examples of Greek Revival architecture in the city, now houses the Lancaster Museum of Art. In its original design, the park was intended to be a formal garden, with only a small area designated as a playground for children. But John P. Herr, the deceased Musser's friend, said that Mr. Musser had wanted a park for the children who had nowhere else to play but the street. The park was therefore constructed largely as a children's playground.
However, much care was still given to the park's development as a green space. The landscape artists planted 55 large shade trees, including red maples, oak, tulip trees and honey locust. They planted more than 1,000 evergreens; among them barberry, boxwood, azaleas, cotoneaster, yew, rhododendron, inkberry and mountain andromeda. Then they added dogwood, magnolias, crabapples and 289 flowering deciduous shrubs such as forsythia, abelias and viburnum. The 36,000 groundcover plants that give Musser Park its vibrant color when in bloom include ivy, pachysandra, dianthus, dwarf flox and periwinkle.
The park went through a period of deterioration in the 1970s, but in the mid 1980s through grants and private donations, funds were raised to restore Musser Park to its former glory. It is once again a green oasis in the heart of Lancaster.
