Charles E. Ray Park

This 8.7-acre neighborhood park at 5626 NW Manville Drive in Port St. Lucie has a covered basketball court, two tennis courts, four pickleball courts, sand volleyball, a ball field and a fenced, shaded playground, open 8 a.m. to sunset.

The city's park page lists the full set of amenities: parking, the covered basketball court with retractable goals, one large 20 x 24 pavilion with 4 tables, two family 14-foot octagon pavilions with a 4-foot table and a small grill in each, a ball field with backstop, a fitness station, a multi-use open area, ADA restrooms and a fenced playground with shade for ages 2 to 12 (City of Port St. Lucie, Charles E. Ray Park). The page notes that none of the pavilions has electricity or water. The park carries the city's autism friendly tag, and questions go to the Parks and Recreation line at 772-878-2277.

The Master Plan Update inventory lists Charles E Ray Park at 8.7 acres with a 2004 date as a neighborhood park (Parks and Recreation Master Plan Update, inventory row 4), and the Recreation and Open Space Element records the same 8.7 acres under the LNP designation at 5626 NW Manville Drive (Recreation and Open Space Element, park inventory).

Yes: the covered court with retractable goals can be reserved for day use and for basketball activities only, in person at the PSL Community Center, with a 3-hour minimum and a 150-person cap.

The city's Reservations and Rentals page lists one rate row covering the Charles E. Ray and Winterlakes Park covered basketball courts: 3 hour minimum $33.99 non-tax rate, $33.37 rate including tax, $25.50 non-profit and travel ball non-tax rate and $27.29 non-profit and travel ball rate including tax; each additional hour $10.42, $11.15, $7.82 and $8.37 in the same four columns (City of Port St. Lucie, Reservations and Rentals, Basketball Court Rentals).

City of Port St. Lucie sport courts and athletic fields can be checked online but must be booked in person; weekday bookings need three days of notice, excluding the reservation date, and weekend bookings must be in before 8 p.m. on the Wednesday before (Reservations and Rentals, Sport Courts and Athletic Field Rentals). The only other covered court on that rate row, at Winterlakes Park on N.W. Jannebo St., carries a notice that nighttime play is temporarily suspended and the courts close at dusk (City of Port St. Lucie, Winterlakes Park).

City pages disagree: the park's own page lists two tennis courts and four pickleball courts without mentioning lights, while the Whispering Pines Park page counts two lighted tennis courts at this park.

The Charles E. Ray amenities list reads simply two tennis courts and four pickleball courts, and the park's posted hours end at sunset (Charles E. Ray Park page, Detailed Amenities and Hours). The Whispering Pines page, describing city-run tennis outside its own center, names Lyngate Park, Jessica Clinton Park, Sportsman's Park and Charles E. Ray Park with two lighted courts each (Whispering Pines Park Racket and Paddle Center page).

For a larger court complex, the Whispering Pines center lists 24 pickleball courts with lights (Whispering Pines page, Racquet and Paddle Center), while Winterlakes Park lists two tennis courts and four pickleball courts, both with lighting (Winterlakes Park page, Detailed Amenities).

Pavilions at this Manville Drive park can be reserved online or at the PSL Community Center, and the city's attendance table caps reservations at this park at 150 people.

The Reservations and Rentals page states that the city accepts neighborhood park reservations up to 180 days ahead. At Port St. Lucie group pavilions, the 3-hour minimum is $20.28 before tax, or $21.70 with tax, and family pavilions cost $11.36, or $12.16 with tax; next-day reservations close at 8 p.m. the day before (Reservations and Rentals, Park Pavilions). In the maximum attendance table for unmanned facilities, Charles E. Ray Park is listed at 150, and the page states that alcoholic beverages and petting zoos are not permitted at those sites.

Across Port St. Lucie parks, reservations on Martin Luther King Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day and Veterans Day carry a 50% rate increase, and no reservations are taken on New Year's Day, Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day (Reservations and Rentals, holiday rules). The department may rescind a reservation for excessive attendance and flag the account of the person who booked it, and it notes that staff may call police for assistance if necessary. The city's alcohol consumption permit costs $29.67, is valid for manned community parks only and does not allow the sale of alcoholic beverages. Refund requests go to Guest Services at the Community Center in person or at 772-878-2277: contact made 15 days before the event brings a 50% refund, contact 14 days or less before brings none, and one reservation may be rescheduled at no additional charge when the request comes 14 days before the reservation date, not counting the date reserved (Reservations and Rentals, refund and rescheduling guidelines).

The Port St. Lucie Recreation and Open Space Element places this park in the large neighborhood park class, a type it describes as typically 6 to 14 acres with each such park expected to serve residents in a 1 to 1 1/2 mile radius.

The Element says these parks are designed to provide play fields for baseball, soccer and football, playgrounds, courts and picnic areas (Recreation and Open Space Element, Large Neighborhood Parks). The same inventory lists Ian T. Zook Park, a 3.5-acre SNP site, at 5600 NW Manville Drive, on the same street.

The Census Bureau geocoder matches the park address as 5626 NW MANVILLE DR, PORT ST LUCIE, FL, 34983 and returns the incorporated place Port St. Lucie, so the park sits inside city limits rather than in the unincorporated county (U.S. Census Bureau geocoder, Incorporated Places layer). On the city's Parks directory, which lists 51 parks and facilities with an interactive map, Charles E. Ray Park appears with the same Manville address and the autism friendly tag, and the page links to an Adopt a Street or Park program and the full Parks and Recreation Master Plan (City of Port St. Lucie, Parks directory).

In the Master Plan Update's Placer.ai visitation review, Charles E Ray Park is placed in the moderate-visitation range with 89,260 visits, alongside Woodstork Trail and Hillmoor Lake park at 89,237 (Master Plan Update, Placer.ai Number of Visits). That passage counts 5,161,803 visits across the parks and recreation system and puts Whispering Pines Park first with 684,317.

Last verified: October 22, 2026, with the Charles E. Ray park page, the Reservations and Rentals rate and attendance tables, the Whispering Pines and Winterlakes park pages, the Master Plan Update and the Recreation and Open Space Element freshly re-read.