Ada Park
History
Created in 1930, Ada Park provided recreational facilities for the Morgan Park neighborhood's expanding African-American population. The park was the last of those developed by the Calumet Park District, established in 1903. The Calumet Park District was one of 22 neighborhood park boards consolidated into the Chicago Park District in 1934. By 1931, Ada Park had a swimming pool and a few landscape improvements. After the Chicago Park District took control of the park in 1934, other recreational facilities were installed. The park district erected a new bath house for the swimming pool in 1940, and built "fieldhouse additions" to the bath house in 1957 and 1990.
Until 1934, Ada Park was known as Loomis Street Park, for the street running along its west side. Late in that year, the Calumet Park District voted to change the name to Ada Park, for the street on the park's opposite side. The street is named for Ada Sawyer Garrett (1856-1938), who sold the last remaining vacant land in the Logan Square neighborhood, the Logan Square Ball Park, to developers in 1924. Though the Chicago Park District informed the Calumet Park District that it had no authority to rename the site Ada Park, the name has been used ever since.
