Jefferson Playlot Park
History
Jefferson Park is one of many playgrounds established by the City of Chicago at the close of World War II. By 1950, the Bureau of Parks and Recreation had developed this playlot on Board of Education-owned property in the under-served Pilsen neighborhood. The bureau soon added a basketball court to the original sandbox, spraypool, playground equipment, and softball diamond. In 1959, the city transferred management of the site to the Chicago Park District, which redeveloped the property and added a comfort station in 1980. The following year, the district expanded the park, purchasing two adjacent vacant lots at the urging of The Pilsen Housing and Business Alliance, the alderman, and other community residents. The Board of Education transferred the remainder of the property to the park district in 1982.
Jefferson Park takes the name of the adjacent street, once the city's western boundary. For years, Pilsen's Jefferson Park was one of three Chicago parks so named. (One has since been renamed Mark Skinner Park, the other, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Park.) All three honored Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), third president of the United States. Among the nation's most revered statesmen, Jefferson was also an architect, educator, inventor, and agriculturalist.
