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Eugene Field Park (Chicago, Illinois)

USA / Illinois / Lincolnwood / Chicago, Illinois / North Ridgeway Avenue, 5100
 theatre, park, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places

Park Description
Officially designated a Chicago Park District Cultural Center in 2001, Eugene Field serves its diverse Albany Park neighborhood with cultural arts offerings through programs, performances and partnerships. Both youth and adults get into the act with various drama programs at the park.

The Albany Park Theatre Project (APTP) is an Arts Partner in Residence at Eugene Field. Formed in 1997, APTP is an ensemble of local teenagers who create original theatre from real-life stories and experiences of this working-class Albany Park community. The group typically presents two full-scale productions per year at the cultural center. For more information, visit www.aptpchicago.org/.

Eugene Field staff members recently unveiled a 45-foot by 10-foot exterior clay and ceramic tile mosaic installed on the exterior of the fieldhouse. Designed and created in Eugene Field’s ceramic studio by 15 local teens in the Gallery 37 in the Parks program, the artwork depicts scenes from poems by the late children’s poet Eugene Field, such as “Wynken, Blyken and Nod” and “The Bellflower Tree.” The park also features an interior WPA mural dedicated to the arts.

In addition to cultural arts, Eugene Field offers residents numerous athletic programs such as basketball, softball and volleyball, as well as aerobics, weightlifting and early childhood programs.

The Chicago River runs through the more than 12-acre Eugene Field, providing a beautiful natural landscape for visitors. The park also features two baseball fields, a football/soccer field, five tennis courts, a playground, spray pool and ceramic studio with kiln.


History
Eugene Field Park was created by the Albany Park District, an independent park board formed in 1917 to provide recreational facilities and enhance the Chicago River's banks in the rapidly-developing North Park and Albany Park communities. In 1923, the Albany Park District began purchasing nearly ten acres of riverside land in the center of its territory. Although land acquisition took a full decade, landscape architect Henry J. Stockman soon prepared a plan that took full advantage of the picturesque river bank site, and improvements began in 1925. In 1928, Clarence Hatzfeld, a member of the park board and architect of many northwest side recreational, commercial, and residential buildings, designed a Tudor Revival-style fieldhouse for the park. A stone grotto and fountain originally graced the front of the fieldhouse. Inside, a Federal Works Progress Administration artist created a mural entitled "The Participation of Youth in the Realm of the Arts."

In 1934, the financial stresses of the Great Depression prompted consolidation of the city's 22 independent park boards, including the Albany Park District, into the unified Chicago Park District. By 1938, Eugene Field Park had a playground, a wading pool, tennis courts, and a lovely wooded picnic area. A decade later, the park district expanded the site by more than two acres, improving the new property with baseball and football fields. In 1980, the park district began leasing another half-acre of city land along the riverbank. Recent park improvements include a soft surface playground and ornamental fencing along Foster Avenue.

The park honors writer and poet Eugene Field (1850-1895), a nationally-renowned children's author. Among Field's best known works are "Little Boy Blue," "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod," and the "Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat." Born in St. Louis, Field worked for a number of western and midwestern newspapers before being recruited by the Chicago Daily News to write a humor column in 1883. Field made his home on Chicago's north side.

www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks/Eugene-Field-Park/
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   41°58'28"N   87°43'20"W
This article was last modified 12 years ago