Trebes Park
Park Description
Located in Lincoln Park, Trebes Park welcomes neighborhood residents of all ages to enjoy their community playground year-round. With a colorful array of flower beds at the park entrance the visitors feel right at home.
Children can choose from bitty basketball, seasonal sports, Saturday Kickers soccer and baseball/t-ball to name a few program offerings. Adults are also invited to come out and play at our baskeball league and Chicago's favorite summer pastime - 16" softball.
Considered a neighborhoodpark it's not unual to see families gathering at the soft surface playground enjoying a warm day in the park. Or, dads coaching their children for Saturday Kickers on a fall weekend. Or, a special event in the summer.
History
In the early 1940s, the City of Chicago purchased land in the near north side Lincoln Park neighborhood for creation of a 44th Ward Recreation Center. The city's Bureau of Parks and Recreation transformed a two-story brick rowhouse into a community center, naming it the Robert Trebes Recreation Center on March 18, 1943. Within a few years, the bureau had constructed a spray pool, a sand box, and two playing fields on adjacent property to the south.
In the late 1950s, the Trebes Recreation Center was demolished, along with the other structures on the block. In 1958, the Board of Education began constructing the new Oscar Meyer Elementary School on the northern half of the block. The Trebes Park property also passed into the hands of the Board of Education, however the Chicago Park District began maintaining the park the following year. The park district and the Board of Education soon began joint operations at the school and park, an arrangement that continues today. In 1991, the Board of Education transferred full ownership of Trebes Park to the park district. After enhancing the property with flower beds, ornamental iron fencing, and a gazebo in the early 1990s, the park district constructed a soft surface playground. The new playground was funded through a bequest of Dorothy Melamerson, a retired local school teacher whose savings have paid for a number of park improvements in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.
Over the years, the Sheffield Neighborhood Associated has raised funds for the numerous improvements to the park. Taking personal pride in their local park volunteers have spent thousand of hours in gardening, and other greening initiatives.
