Harding Playlot Park
History
Frederick Harding Park is one of many small parks created by the City of Chicago to meet growing recreational demands after World War II. Improvements to the property at Harding Avenue and Division Street in the Humboldt Park neighborhood began in 1955, and the new park opened to the public the following year. In 1959, the city transferred Frederick Harding Park to the Chicago Park District along with more than 250 other properties. A new soft surface playground replaced the original playground equipment and basketball court in 1990.
Both the park and the adjacent street honor Frederick Harding, a Civil War captain who organized Chicago's first company of Union troops. Harding's family developed substantial areas of northwest Chicago during the 19th-century, including a nearby subdivision that also bears his name.