Green Briar Park
Park Description
Green Briar Park, prominently located on West Peterson Avenue just east of California Avenue, serves its community residents with a number of athletic and unique recreational activities, ranging from a weekly drum circle to jewelry making. The historic fieldhouse features a gymnasium on the first floor and an auditorium on the second floor, which is available for rental for private events and parties.
As part of its after-school drop-in program, Green Briar Park offers homework time. The park also provides bitty basketball, basketball for ages 15-17, teen club, and instruction in recreational tumbling and team tumbling. For those who enjoy all sports, Green Briar Park offers a sports club that provides practice and preparation for regional and citywide athletic tournaments, which may include flag football, wrestling, volleyball, tumbling or floor hockey, for example. There are also arts and crafts classes.
Smaller children join in preschool, playgroup, paper craft, or story telling. For adults, Green Briar offers 5-on-5 basketball, volleyball, 14” softball, senior conditioning, and jewelry making/lapidary. All ages are invited to participate in the park’s interactive drum circle on Friday nights, instrumental music classes, and table tennis.
In the summer, Green Briar keeps children active with an extended day camp ideal for working parents. The camp includes both a morning session and an afternoon session.
Outdoors, Green Briar Park features two basketball standards, two junior baseball fields, a tennis court, volleyball court, playground and spray pool.
History
Chicago's West Ridge community grew significantly between 1920 and 1930, its population increasing from 7,500 to nearly 40,000 during that decade. In 1925, the River Park District purchased a 3.3-acre tract of land in the Green Briar subdivision of the West Ridge community - the northernmost section of that park district's territory. The following year, landscape architect and River Park District board member Jacob L. Crane, Jr. developed a plan for the rectangular park. The plan was featured as a model of good recreational design in Parks: A Manual of Municipal and County Parks. Lack of funds delayed park improvement until 1928, however, when the Chicago Landscape Company implemented a modified version of Crane's plan. That same year, the park district erected an elegant, 2-story, tile-roofed brick fieldhouse with a 300-seat assembly hall designed by Chicago architect Clarence Hatzfeld. Hatzfeld designed a number of notable buildings in Chicago's parks, including revival-style fieldhouses in Indian Boundary, Portage, and Independence Parks. In 1934, the River Park District and Chicago's 21 other independent park boards were consolidated into the newly-created Chicago Park District. Shortly thereafter, the Chicago Park District constructed a wading pool and tennis courts at Green Briar Park. A new soft surface playground was added in 1991.
