One of downtown Grants Pass’ smaller public parks is about to undergo a substantial transformation, becoming part of a multimillion-dollar children’s museum and early-learning campus that has been quietly taking shape around the former Dutch Bros headquarters.
Debo Park, located at 510 SW G Street, will close as a public city park on September 8 and be turned over under a lease to the Oregon Center for Creative Learning. The property will become part of the organization’s developing Children’s Museum and early-learning operations, bringing the park into a project designed to combine interactive childhood education, preschool services and family programming in the heart of Grants Pass.
For residents accustomed to Debo Park as a small patch of public green space and playground area downtown, the September change will be unmistakable. The city has made clear that this is not simply a temporary construction closure. After the property is transferred to the organization, Debo Park will no longer operate as a public municipal park.
The location helps explain why the property has become part of the larger development.
Immediately associated with the park area is the former Dutch Bros headquarters, a property donated to the Oregon Center for Creative Learning for development of a Grants Pass Children’s Museum and Ivy School preschool. The museum project has been centered around the Fourth and G streets area, placing Debo Park alongside a growing collection of property intended for children’s educational programs.
What might appear from the outside to be the conversion of a small neighborhood park is therefore part of a considerably larger undertaking.
The Oregon Center for Creative Learning has established a fundraising goal of approximately $7.5 million for its Grants Pass project. Plans extend beyond museum exhibits and include preschool and early-learning operations intended to increase the number of childcare opportunities available in Josephine County.
City planning and economic development records have previously estimated that the development could create approximately 80 additional childcare spaces. Those spaces would be connected with the Ivy School component of the project, placing daily preschool education alongside the interactive learning environment envisioned for the Children’s Museum.
The combination gives the downtown project two distinct functions. Children and families will have access to museum-style educational experiences built around interactive learning and play, while the preschool operation will provide structured early childhood education and childcare.
The project has been advancing through a mixture of donated property, nonprofit fundraising, community grants and involvement from local government.
The former Dutch Bros headquarters provided the physical foundation for the Grants Pass expansion when the property was donated for development of the museum and school. Since then, city staff have participated in steering and community outreach efforts associated with the project, and the Grants Pass Urban Renewal Agency has considered financial assistance related to rehabilitation and restoration work.
Significant charitable funding has also flowed toward the organization’s Josephine County expansion.
The Coalition for Kids Fund awarded the Oregon Center for Creative Learning $250,000 in 2025 toward the capital campaign supporting the Grants Pass Children’s Museum and Ivy School. Additional funding followed in 2026, when the organization received $20,000 for preschool scholarships at the Grants Pass Ivy School as part of $165,000 distributed among nine organizations serving young children in Josephine County.
The Ford Family Foundation has also listed a $225,000 grant to the Oregon Center for Creative Learning for a project identified as Brighter Futures for Josephine County, adding another substantial contribution connected with the organization’s work in the area.
Residents have already received a small preview of how the future Children’s Museum property could interact with downtown community events. During the 2025 Art Along the Rogue festival, children’s activities were hosted on the future museum property near Fourth and G streets, introducing families to a location that is now moving closer to its permanent educational purpose.
Debo Park adds another physical piece to that campus.
The park’s playground and open space have historically provided a modest recreational area within the downtown core. Incorporating that property gives the Oregon Center for Creative Learning additional outdoor space immediately connected with its developing facilities, although the city’s August 24 announcement did not describe exactly how the existing park grounds or playground equipment will be used once the lease begins.
Several other details of the arrangement were not included in the city’s announcement. The publicly released information did not specify the duration of the lease, its financial terms, future access arrangements for the grounds or the respective responsibilities of the city and Oregon Center for Creative Learning for improvements and long-term maintenance.
What has been established is the date and the change in use.
September 8 will end Debo Park’s operation as a public municipal park and begin its incorporation into a nonprofit educational campus devoted to young children and families. The land is becoming one component of a project substantially larger than the park itself, connecting donated downtown property, millions of dollars in planned investment, expanded preschool capacity and a new Children’s Museum within several blocks of the city center.
As construction and development continue around the former Dutch Bros headquarters, the disappearance of Debo Park from the city’s roster of publicly accessible park space will be one of the most visible signs yet that the Children’s Museum project is moving from planning and fundraising into a physical transformation of downtown Grants Pass.