Pottawattomie Park
Park Description
Pottawattomie Park, located in the Rogers Park neighborhood, offers the following activities: baseball, basketball, bridge club, dance, floor hockey, soccer, step aerobics, track & field, tumbling, teen club, volleyball, Black History Month celebrations, holiday parties and special events for Chicago Public School non-attendance days.
Pottawattomie Park is also one of the North Side park locations offering the following unique programs: Park Kids, Park Voyagers, and Camp 3-D.The Park Kids after-school program gives would-be latch-key kids a supervised place to learn new sports and music, do arts & crafts, have a quiet area for homework, and gain socialization skills. The Park Voyagers program, a collaboration with Museums In the Parks, introduces families to the wonders of our city’s museums. Camp 3-D is a sports and arts camp available at the end of summer, after standard day camps conclude.
Located on 8.79 acres, the park is comprised of three baseball fields, a combination football-soccer field, four basketball standards, two tennis courts, two playgrounds including a spray pool. The air-conditioned fieldhouse contains a fitness center, racquetball court, gymnasium, kitchen, and four club rooms.
Pottawattomie Park is also a C.A.P.S. monthly meeting site where neighbors can discuss 24th Police District issues.
History
Pottawattomie Park was one of four parks created by the Ridge Avenue Park District, established in 1896. The Ridge Avenue Park District's early parks were Morse and Indian Boundary. In 1931, the park district purchased property for two additional parks, Chippewa and Pottawattomie. Pottawattomie Park was the idea of the Birchwood Improvement Association, which lobbied for the establishment of a community center east of Ridge Avenue and north of Rogers Avenue. The park's name honors the Pottawattomie (Potawatomi) Indians, one of nine tribal groups living around the Great Lakes after 1600. The Pottawattomies lived on the eastern edge of Lake Michigan until about 1760, when they moved westward into the Chicago region. Although many Pottawattomies intermarried with French, British, and American traders, the tribe was nevertheless forced from the area after the Blackhawk War of 1832. A large Works Progress Administration painting in the park fieldhouse depicts a meeting between Native Americans and whites.
