McKeon Playlot Park
History
McKeon Park is one of many small city parks created to meet the recreational needs of booming post-World War II Chicago. The city's Bureau of Parks and Recreation developed plans for this Bridgeport neighborhood park in 1948, improving it with a gravel-surfaced playground and sand box shortly thereafter. In 1959, the city transferred this site to the Chicago Park District, along with more than 250 other properties. The park district has upgraded McKeon Park over the years, most recently installing a new soft surface playground and enclosing the property with ornamental iron fencing.
Originally known as Wallace Playlot for the adjacent street, the site was renamed McKeon Park in October, 1967. The new name honors Lt. Joseph T. McKeon, Jr., a U.S. Marine killed in the Vietnam War.