Tom Brown Park in Tallahassee, Florida

Tom Brown Park is a nearly 300 acre City of Tallahassee park east of Capital Circle Southeast, between Mahan Drive and Apalachee Parkway, open sunrise to sunset.

The City of Tallahassee park page calls Tom Brown Park the city's premier place to play, with numerous baseball and softball fields, tennis and racquetball courts, playgrounds, wide open spaces, wooded trails, a pump track and a dog park. The same page links a Tom Brown Park map, the disc golf course, a map of the Magnolia Mountain Bike Trail, the Lafayette Passage Paddling Trail and the trails at City parks. The city's disc golf page gives the course address as 501 Easterwood Drive.

The park is run by the city's Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Affairs Department, known as PRNA, which lists its office at 1201 Myers Park Drive in Tallahassee and its phone as 850-891-3866 on the disc golf page. The city does not publish a field count on its Tom Brown Park page, so this guide does not give one.

The Tom Brown Park Tennis Center has 12 lighted hard courts and 12 outdoor racquetball courts, according to the City of Tallahassee.

The city's tennis court page lists the center at 501 Easterwood Avenue, phone 850-509-4031, while the city's disc golf page gives the park address as 501 Easterwood Drive; the two city pages name the street differently. The Tom Brown Park tennis courts are multi-purpose courts for tennis, pickleball and other sports that will not damage the surface or nets, and the Tom Brown pickleball courts are for pickleball only. Racquetball courts are first come, first play and free.

During the listed hours players must pay to play at Tom Brown Park. Court reservations at Tom Brown and Winthrop can be made online or by calling 850-891-4940 from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and until 6 p.m. on weekends, up to 6 days in advance, the city says.

The park is named for Thomas Irvin Brown, Jr., who was a Leon County Commissioner for 14 years, and it was dedicated on January 30, 1977.

The City of Tallahassee adds that Brown was also a coach for Leon High School and the Babe Ruth League, and that his efforts and leadership touched the lives of many citizens. The dedication date makes Tom Brown Park a park of the late 1970s, built around the ball fields that still fill most of its open ground.

The Tom Brown Park course is one of three free City of Tallahassee disc golf courses, and nine of its holes play through wooded areas.

The city's disc golf page says PRNA offers courses at Tom Brown, Jack L. McLean Jr. and Paradise parks, and that both Tom Brown and Jack L. McLean Jr. parks feature varied elevation, unique for Florida terrain. At Tom Brown Park the remaining holes are in open areas with large oak and pine trees on the fairways, and a few out-of-bounds areas add challenge. The courses are free to play, and there is no need for a tee time.

Leagues and other groups organize competitions at Tom Brown Park, and the city points players to the message board at Hole One for events; anyone wanting to host one is asked to call PRNA at 850-891-FUNN. The posted Tallahassee rules follow standard play: tee throws must be completed within or behind the tee area, a disc resting more than 6 feet above the ground is unplayable with a one-throw penalty, and a disc is declared lost if it cannot be found within three minutes. Over a fence, in the road and across the road are out of bounds, also a one-throw penalty, which matters on a park course bordered by roads.

Celebrate America is the City of Tallahassee's annual Fourth of July fireworks show, and the city's Tom Brown Park page names the park as its host.

The city's Celebrate America page describes the most recent event, held from 6 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, July 4, 2026, at Tom Brown Park with the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra as headliner and a fireworks display sponsored by the City's Electric and Natural Gas Utility. Food trucks and children's activities were part of the evening, picnics were welcome, and beer was sold to those 21 and older with a valid ID. The event is presented by the City of Tallahassee and coordinated by PRNA.

Parking is the constraint. The city said all vehicle access to Tom Brown Park would close at 8:30 p.m. or earlier, and StarMetro ran free shuttles from the former Sears lot at 1500 Apalachee Parkway, with Dial-A-Ride on the same route, until 8:30 p.m. and again after the fireworks, ending around 11 p.m. Personal fireworks, sparklers, grills, personal tents in the concert area and pets other than service animals were not allowed, and traffic on Conner Boulevard was limited from noon. The dog park closed for the day and the disc golf course stayed open for limited use.

The format repeats from year to year. A City of Tallahassee news release dated June 20, 2025 described the 2025 Tom Brown Park event on Friday, July 4, also from 6 to 10 p.m., with the School of Arts and Sciences rock band, the Eleven O Five band and the Funky Taters with Lili Forbes, the same 9:50 p.m. fireworks start, and the same free StarMetro shuttle from the former Sears lot.

The city's Tom Brown Park page links the Lafayette Passage Paddling Trail, which starts at Piney Z Lake and runs onto Lower Lake Lafayette east of the park.

On its Lafayette Passage page, the City of Tallahassee gives the paddling trail as a 7.8 mile round trip from the boat ramp at Piney Z Lake, or a 6 mile round trip from the ramp at the end of Road to The Lake in Chaires, across property owned by the City of Tallahassee, Leon County and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Paddling the whole trail from Piney Z Lake takes about 4 hours or more, and there are no dry land rest areas along it.

The Piney Z entrance is reached by Heritage Park Boulevard through the Piney Z Plantation neighborhood off Conner Boulevard, ending at the Lafayette Heritage Trail Park parking area, which the city lists at 49000 Heritage Park Blvd., Tallahassee, FL 32311. A gravel beach at each end of the Tallahassee portage helps paddlers get in and out of their boats.

Duck season changes the water. Hunting is allowed on the FWC-owned portion of the trail, which is most of the trail on Lower Lake Lafayette; in Leon County it is allowed on Wednesdays and weekends, sunrise to sunset, November through February. Hunting is prohibited on City of Tallahassee property, so paddlers who want to avoid hunters can stay on Lake Piney Z. PRNA staff for paddling trail issues on city property are at 850-891-5314 or 850-509-5746.

Piney Z Lake is a fish management area managed jointly by the City of Tallahassee and FWC. A fishing license is required, including for cane poles; swimming, firearms and alcoholic beverages are prohibited; only hand-launched boats without gasoline motors are allowed; no one may kill or possess any black bass; and the daily limit is 20 panfish in the aggregate and 6 channel catfish.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, by re-reading the City of Tallahassee pages for Tom Brown Park, tennis courts, disc golf, the Lafayette Passage Paddling Trail and Celebrate America, and the city's June 20, 2025 Celebrate America release.