Curie Park
History
Curie Park is among a number of sites within the city that are operated jointly by the Chicago Park District and the Chicago Board of Education. The Public Building Commission purchased the park property in 1971, in order to lease it to the park district for recreational purposes and to the board of education for a new high school. The property passed entirely into the hands of the school board in 1990, but the park district continues to use the fieldhouse and the playing fields. Both the park and the adjacent school are named for Nobel prize winner Marie Sklodlowska Curie (1867-1934). Born in 1867 in Warsaw Poland, Marie Sklodlowska studied physics at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1895, she married Pierre Curie (1859-1906) and the two became renowned throughout the scientific world for their work. Together, they discovered the element radium, and the element polonium, which Madame Curie named for her native land.
