Hyde Park includes 150 acres in downtown Stafford on the south side of the Middle River. In 1897, Stafford native Isaac Perkins Hyde, owner of Hyde Manufacturing in Southbridge, Massachusetts, bequeathed funds to the Town of Stafford to purchase land for a public park, to be maintained in perpetuity for the residents of Stafford. In 1911, the trustees of the fund chose the estate of Julius Converse, owner of the Mineral Springs Manufacturing Company, the Springs House and the Mineral Springs, to establish Hyde Park.