Simons Park
History
Simons Park honors local resident Almira Simons Winkleman, daughter of early settlers Edward Simons and Laura Sprague Simons. Beginning in 1836, Edward, a northeasterner, and Laura, a former Joliet school teacher, farmed the land now bordered by Armitage, North, Central Park, and Kedzie Avenues. The Simons Park name was suggested by Almira Simons Winkleman's two daughters during the park's development just after World War I. The Fullerton Avenue Business Men's Association had proposed creation of a neighborhood park in 1916, but no action was taken until after the war. The area's Northwest Park District, one of 22 park commissions consolidated into the Chicago Park District in 1934, made its first purchase of land for the park in 1920. Eight years later, the Northwest Park District constructed a red-brick, Second Empire-style fieldhouse designed by nationally-known architect W.W. Alschlager. The fieldhouse, similar to Alschlager's fieldhouses at nearby Kelvyn and Riis Parks, was remodelled in 1990.
