In the 1960’s, a 247-acre freight switching facility called Taylor Yard began to slow down its operations during a time when Los Angeles was growing and expanding rapidly. By 1985 it was closed and only used for maintenance and storage. These parcels of land remained undeveloped along the channelized Los Angeles River. Portions of the river near this park are still soft bottomed, or partially un-cemented, allowing for an opportunity to reestablish natural processes within the emerging Los Angeles River Greenway. It is one of the last remaining undeveloped portions of land along the river to be used by communities as a park.
The history of the park reaches back to when Los Angeles was emerging as an industrial superpower. In 1923, due to congestion at the River Station (currently Los Angeles State Historic Park), the service and maintenance functions for the Southern Pacific Railroad company were moved to Taylor Yard. Taylor Yard had been named after J. Hartley Taylor who was a grain merchant and owned a milling company in the area. Throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s the property was a rail yard and an industrial site used primarily as a freight-switching facility, storage space and maintenance and repair facility for rail cars and locomotive engines. Several utility shops were on the property, which provided electrical, plumbing and mechanical support services. Shortly after World War I, the Southern Pacific Railroad outgrew its Midway Yard facility and moved to what is now Rio de Los Angeles State Park. Operations at the railroad complex slowed in the 1960’s when rail facilities opened elsewhere.