MLK, Jr. Walking Trail and Park, Gifford

The MLK, Jr. Walking Trail and Park is an Indian River County park at 2880 45th Street, across the street from Gifford Middle School, at the northwest corner of 45th Street and 28th Court.

The county's park page gives the address as 2880 45TH ST, VERO BEACH and describes the site as located across the street from Gifford Middle School (Indian River County, MLK, Jr. Walking Trail and Park page). The school's own site lists Gifford Middle School at 4530 28th Court, Vero Beach, FL 32967, main number (772) 564-3550, serving grades 6-8 (Gifford Middle School home page). The county's alphabetical Parks and Beaches list carries the park under M as MLK, Jr. Walking Trail and Park, with a map link to the county viewer (county parks list, letter M).

The 2014 Gifford Neighborhood Plan, the county's planning document for the area, names the same site Martin Luther King, Jr. Park and locates it at the northwest corner of 45th Street and 28th Court (Gifford Neighborhood Plan 2014, recreation facilities). Last verified: October 22, 2026, when the MLK park page and the county parks list, the Gifford Middle School home page, the 2014 Gifford plan with its update page, and recreation element Tables 10.3 to 10.5 were each fetched again.

The MLK park on 45th Street has a playground, benches, educational signage and a half-mile walking trail, and the county lists it as open daily from 7am to sunset.

On the county page, the hours line reads Daily 7am-Sunset, and the amenity list runs Playground, Benches, Walking trail, Educational signage (MLK park amenities and hours). Its one-line description calls the 45th Street site the county's newest park and says it features a playground, benches, and a half-mile walking trail. The county amenity list for the Gifford park names those four items.

The MLK park page prints the countywide park rules plus two extra lines that ban remote controlled aircraft and golfing activities.

The rules below are copied from the county page for the Gifford park, each with the section of County Ordinance 205.03 that the page cites (rules on the MLK, Jr. Walking Trail and Park page). The last two, on remote controlled aircraft and golfing, appear on this page but not in the shorter rule block printed for the Gifford Dock or Hosie Shumann Park pages.

The 2014 Gifford Neighborhood Plan recorded a wooded county site north of the park surveyed for walking trails and set an action for the county and MPO to seek state trail funding.

The plan says that north of the church/museum building at Martin Luther King, Jr. Park is a wooded county-owned site that has been surveyed for future passive recreational improvements such as walking trails, and that the MPO has applied for a Recreational Trails Grant to build a trail at this park (Gifford Neighborhood Plan 2014). Its recreation assessment adds that the MPO recently applied for a Recreational Trails Grant to build a trail between the Martin Luther King, Jr. Park and the health center.

Objective 13 of the plan, on park improvements, carries the trail as Action 13.9: by 2014, the County/MPO will apply for state funding to build a walking trail at the Martin Luther King Park, and the county will commit local matching funds necessary for the application (Gifford plan Action 13.9). The implementation table lists Action 13.9, Apply for Grant for Trail at Martin Luther King Park, with the MPO and Health Department as responsible entities and a 2014 date. County commissioners approved those actions with the plan on July 15, 2014, per the plan update page (Gifford Neighborhood Plan Update page).

Today the county park page lists a half-mile walking trail at 2880 45th Street and calls the site the county's newest park, without saying how the trail was funded (current MLK park page).

County documents list Martin Luther King, Jr. Park as a two acre neighborhood park, one of two neighborhood parks the 2014 plan counts in Gifford.

In the 2014 Gifford plan, the MLK site is one of a pair: the recreation assessment counts it with Hosie-Schumann Park as the area's two neighborhood parks of two acres each (Gifford plan recreation assessment). The plan defines a neighborhood park as 2 to 5 acres with improvements such as swings, benches, tot lots, fitness trails, and picnic areas. The same assessment says the county maintains and periodically upgrades facilities at Gifford Park, Hosie-Schumann Park, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, resurfacing courts and other facilities as needed.

In the recreation element's park inventory, Table 10.5, the MLK Park row reads C for county ownership, N for neighborhood park and 2 acres (recreation element inventory, MLK Park row). The same chapter's summary table counts Neighborhood Parks 7 among the 27 parks in the unincorporated county, and Table 10.4 lists MLK Park among the county parks.

The 2014 Gifford plan says Martin Luther King, Jr. Park contains the historic Macedonia Baptist Church and Museum, a 1908 church moved to Gifford in 1994.

The plan's recreation section states that the park contains the historic Macedonia Baptist Church and Museum (2014 plan, MLK park description). The plan's Appendix E history dates the church to 1908, when black railroad workers built it primarily on donated land in Sebastian, and says the church came to its present Gifford site in 1994, when it was also completely restored. The plan's list of recreational facilities in the Gifford area pairs the two as Old Macedonia Church/MLK Park. The museum in that church/museum building has its own Digital Towns guide, the Gifford Historical Museum guide.

The same plan lists the Martin Luther King, Jr. Parade & Celebration among the annual events held in Gifford, and a Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Committee among the monthly meetings held in Gifford (Gifford plan, ongoing activities). The parade itself is covered in the Gifford MLK Day parade guide.