One of Mill Creek Park’s original consulting landscape architects, Warren H. Manning, believed that park design should adapt to accommodate visitors’ views from automobiles. Because people were traveling at faster speeds, he specified that vistas should appear at the end of vision lines as people were driving toward them rather than on the sides of roads, which would be quickly passed.

In 1932, the Garden Club of Youngstown purchased 8,000 daffodil bulbs to plant on the east side of Lake Newport as part of a beautification plan for the Newport Section of Mill Creek Park. Daffodils were planted in masses in order to catch the eye.

Since then, thousands of visitors flock to Daffodil Meadow each spring to take in the early show of color. Mill Creek MetroParks was even named in a 2009 USA Today article as a top place to see daffodils. New bulbs are planted every fall to ensure there will be enough daffodils for all to enjoy the following spring.

The Garden Club of Youngstown celebrated their 100 year anniversary in 2015 and partnered with the MetroParks by substantially funding an improvement project at Daffodil Meadow. Improvements included: Additional daffodil bulb plantings, a new facility sign, ornamental tree/shrub plantings, planting of historic daffodil bulb varieties, interpretive and educational signage, and daffodil identification labels during the blooming season.