The course was established in 1928 by Serles Reed as a privately owned golf course on land that was once a working farm of industrialist William Mason, along the eastern bank of the Three Mile River in Taunton. The City of Taunton acquired the property in 1985 to preserve the natural setting, and it operates today as a 9-hole municipal course named for John F. Parker, mayor of Taunton from 1947 to 1954. The original course architect is not documented.