Edison Park
Park Description
Located on Northwest Highway in the heart of its namesake neighborhood, Edison Park features a quaint, historic fieldhouse that serves primarily as a community and cultural arts center.
Upstairs, the Northwest Society of Model Railroaders meets and works on a public display of an electric model train that twists and turns along a massive, elaborately designed track.
Many seniors gather at Edison Park wekly for an active social club always welcoming new members.
Edison Park offers such art classes as: mixed media, drawing, painting, and ceramics.
The park serves a large number of preschool-age children with developmental programs such as storytime, crafts, as well as Moms, Pops & Tots, an interactive class that involves the parent and child. With its outdoor, soft-surface playground, Edison Park entertains and educates the little ones with summer play camp.
The park gets into the holiday spirit each year as the site for the Chamber of Commerce Santa Express event, featuring photos with Santa.
An on-site A-Plus Education Center provides tutoring to youth in reading, math, writing, and study skills—as well as Prairie State/ACT preparation. On average, students enrolled in A-Plus improve skills by more than one full grade level in four to six months of instruction. A-Plus can be reached at (773) 775-9867 or online at www.apluscenters.com.
History
Edison Park takes its name from the surrounding Edison Park community, named in 1892 for American inventor Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931). The area's first settler, Rev. Christian Ebinger (1812-1879), Sr., headed west from Detroit with his family in 1833. When their horse fell dead from a rattle snake bite 15 miles northwest of Chicago, the Ebingers decided to settle on the spot. In 1907, the Village of Edison Park built a new public school, naming it for Christian Ebinger. After Chicago annexed Edison Park in 1910, Ebinger School came under the jurisdiction of the Chicago Board of Education.
The financial pressures of the Great Depression necessitated the consolidation of Chicago's 22 independent park boards into the Chicago Park District in 1934. Two years later, the park district began leasing Ebinger School and its site from the Board of Education. Though the park district inherited more than 100 parks from the 22 independent boards, the Ebinger School property was the first park to be developed by the new agency. Renaming the property Edison Park in 1937, the park district began rehabilitating the school building and its grounds to provide fieldhouse facilities and an attractive surrounding greenspace. The fieldhouse soon offered a library; game and club rooms; and spaces for wood working, weaving, and other crafts. In 1988, a new soft surface playground was installed adjacent to the historic fieldhouse.
