John C. Thompson

John C. Thompson was president of the New York Air Brake Company at one time. He bought the land on Pinnacle Hill on the eastern edge of Watertown and commissioned the Olmstead Brothers, landscape architects famous for their design of Central Park in New York City, to design the park. Thompson then donated the park anonymously to the City of Watertown in 1903. Originally known as City Park, the city renamed it Thompson Park after Thompson's death, when his donation to the city became public.

Thompson Park