Major renovation

Wilson Wonderground: Houston's newest SPARK Park opens in Montrose

HISD's Woodrow Wilson Montessori School and the surrounding neighborhood has anew and improved SPARK Park — the Wilson Wonderground.
Photo by Whitney Radley
Wilson received its first SPARK more than a decade ago.
SolarThermalMagazine.com
The park adds new features like an athletics lawn and an herb garden, plusnatural play spaces that incorporate organic materials.
WilsonPark.org

The park at Woodrow Wilson Montessori School has been under renovation for months, but an opening ceremony on Friday made Wilson Wonderground once again accessible to the students and the public as Houston's newest SPARK Park.

A warm autumn afternoon set the perfect backdrop for the ceremony, which drew political dignitaries like former governor Mark White, a Wilson alum, and city council member Ellen Cohen together with parents, community members, teachers and students to sing the park's praises.

Students from kindergarten through 8th grade come from all over the city to attend the Title 1 magnet school. Project coordinator Maureen McNamara led the families and community members to raise more than $300,000 in grants and donations for improvements to the park (which initially received SPARK treatment more than a decade ago).

"Everyone saw the value in this park," Kathleen Ownby, executive director of SPARK and daughter of the late Eleanor Tinsley, told CultureMap.

"Everyone saw the value in this park," Kathleen Ownby, executive director of SPARK and daughter of the late Eleanor Tinsley, told CultureMap. "It's been a hugely successful project."

Park improvements include a new athletics lawn with a track, a lowland habitat garden, a sun garden, two natural play gardens and climbing structures. The playground has received enhancements, and organic materials like wood, rock, sand and native plants have been incorporated into the natural play spaces.

Those designs were furnished by Scott McCready, a Wilson Montessori parent and a landscape architect with SWA Group, and local artists Elena Cusi Wortham (a Wilson grandparent) and Bill Davenport (a Wilson parent) made contributions.

The park will be open to the public Monday through Friday from after school until dusk and on Saturday and Sunday from 7 a.m. until dusk.

SPARK started in 1983 to increase park space in the City of Houston by forging partnerships with public neighborhood schools. Now in its 29th year, the organization is in a dozen school districts and 200 schools.

The Wilson Wonderground opening ceremony kicks off SPARK Week 2012, with the dedication of seven new parks scheduled through Nov. 15.

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let's all take the bus

Texas sees 5th highest surge in gas prices in the U.S. since 2025

Photo courtesy of Pixabay

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Houston residents who are feeling the sting at the gas pump aren't alone: Residents all around Texas are seeing soaring prices for regular and diesel fuel in 2026.

In fact, the Lone Star State has seen the fifth-highest percentage increase in gas prices in the country from April 2025 to April 2026, a just-released SmartAsset study has found. The current cost of a regular gallon of gas is 36.1 percent higher now than it was a year ago, and diesel is 60.9 percent more expensive.

The report, "Gas Prices Hit Records in 2026: State by State Breakdown," compared average gas prices from AAA from April 1, 2025 and April 1, 2026 and calculated the one-year change across all 50 states. The study looked at the price of a gallon of regular, premium, and diesel.

According to AAA, the cost of a regular gallon of gas in Texas at the start of April was $3.77, while premium is $4.62 per gallon. Diesel ticked over $5 a gallon — ouch — at $5.11.

Houston gas prices aren't much cheaper than the statewide average. A gallon of regular costs up to $3.76 at some Houston-area pumps, and diesel is $5.05 per gallon. AAA says the highest recorded average price for gas in the city was in June 2022, when a gallon of regular cost $4.68 and diesel cost $5.24.

Though Texas' gas prices are continuing to climb, it ranks 35th in the national ranking of states with the highest cost for regular gas as of April 2026. Texas' diesel prices are the 14th highest nationwide.

With the national average price for gas at $4.06, SmartAsset said the sudden surge in prices can be attributed to the United States' war on Iran, and "subsequent pressure on the Strait of Hormuz."

"Many states have experienced a 33 percent year-over-year increase in the cost of a gallon of regular gas – and in some places it’s even higher," the report's author wrote. "Commercial and public programs may be feeling similarly pinched, with diesel prices upwards of $6.00 per gallon in many states."

California currently has the highest average price for regular and diesel — $5.89 per gallon and $7.52 per gallon, respectively.

Arizona leads the nation with the highest one-year increase in gas prices. Regular gas in the Grand Canyon State is nearly 38 percent more expensive than it was last year, at $4.70 per gallon, and diesel is about 69 percent higher at $6.04 for a gallon.

The state with the cheapest gas prices in April is Oklahoma, where regular costs $3.27 per gallon, premium is $3.97, and diesel is $4.49.

gas prices texas smartasset