Helen Wills Playground Park

Helen Wills Playground Park is named for one of the most dominant athletes in the history of tennis. Helen Wills was an American superstar in the nineteen twenties and thirties who won thirty-one Grand Slam titles. She earned the nickname Little Miss Poker Face for the intense, focused expression she maintained while playing. Despite her global fame and connections to royalty and film stars, she preferred to keep her life private and eventually focused on her work as an artist and author. The park was officially renamed in her honor in nineteen twenty-nine to recognize her extraordinary career and her status as a native Californian.