Brock Park is named for Sidney Lorenzo Brock (1869-1943), a true Renaissance man who left an indelible mark on this city he loved so much. Brock owned a store in Missouri but he raised prize cattle as a hobby. His first visit to Oklahoma City came during a livestock convention in 1905 and he liked it so much he moved his family to the city. He soon opened the upscale Brock Dry Goods store on Main Street (which he sold to John A. Brown in 1915) and became active in civic affairs. By 1909, as president of the Chamber of Commerce, he saw a need for industry in Oklahoma City so he used his connections in the cattle world to convince Chicago meat packing companies to open plants here. The stockyards and packing plants were important economic developments for the young city and Brock insured their success by encouraging a streetcar line and housing be built in what became known as Packingtown (now Stockyards City).

Brock Park was created in 1909 when the surrounding Industrial Addition was developed in order to provide housing for packing plant workers. The stream that runs through the center of the park had no name on early city maps, so it seemed fitting to name it after Sidney Brock as well. For many years it was a wild stream but during the Great Depression in the 1930s, WPA workers straightened the entire course as a flood control project and built the first bridges in the park, as well as a pool and a clubhouse. In the 1940s the park was even home to an experimental public primary school at SW 32 and Brock Dr., though for most of its 100-plus years Brock Park has been a quiet park for a neighborhood steeped in Oklahoma City history.