Grand Playlot Park
History
In 1926, the Chicago City Council acquired a small plot of land along West Grand Avenue in the growing Humboldt Park community. Initially used as a ward yard, the property was later transferred to the city's Bureau of Parks and Recreation. By 1950, the bureau had improved the site with a spray pool, a sand box, and playground equipment. Following its practice of the time, the bureau named the playlot for the adjacent street, Grand Avenue. Originally known as Whisky Point Road, the street's more elegant name may have been borrowed from Colonel Thomas Jefferson Vance Owens (1801-1835), an early Chicago Indian Agent. Owens, elected the first president of the Town of Chicago in 1833, once proclaimed Chicago "a grand place to live."
In 1959, the city transferred Grand Park, along with more than 250 other properties to the Chicago Park District. Several years later, the park district removed the spray pool and rehabilitated the park site. Further improvements came in 1991, with the installation of a new soft surface playground.