Blackhawk Park
History
Located in Chicago's Cragin neighborhood, Blackhawk Park was the creation of the Northwest Park District, one of 22 park commissions consolidated into the Chicago Park District in 1934. The Northwest Park District began to acquire land for Blackhawk Park in 1916. In 1921, renowned landscape architect Jens Jensen, designer of much of the West Park system, developed a plan for the park. Early improvements included a wading pool, a playground, tennis courts, and electric lighting. In 1926, the park district constructed a fieldhouse, one of six designed by Albert A. Schwartz for the Northwest and Old Portage Park Districts. Two years later, architect Walter W. Alschlager designed a major fieldhouse addition, including a natatorium.
The Northwest Park District dedicated its new park to the honor of a World War I Army unit, the Blackhawk Division of the Allied Expeditionary Force. Composed of volunteers and draftees from Illinois, the Division took its name from the Sac chief Black Hawk (1767-1838). In 1832, Black Hawk led a group of Sac, Fox, and Kickapoo Indians west across the Mississippi into Illinois in a futile attempt to reclaim their ancestral lands, from which they had been forced in the 1820s. Though his forces were beaten back, and fell to final defeat on August 2, 1832, Black Hawk has been remembered ever since for his bravery.
