Claremont Playlot Park
History
The Chicago Park District purchased this once-vacant lot for park development in 1974. Two years later, at the request of area residents, the park district officially designated the site Claremont Park for nearby Claremont Avenue. The street takes its name from the Clermont, the first commercially successful steamboat. Designed by inventor, canal engineer, and artist Robert Fulton (1765-1815), the Clermont made its inaugural voyage on August 17, 1807. The steamboat trip up the Hudson River from New York City to Albany, New York took 62 hours.