Chase Park
Park Description
Located in the Uptown neighborhood, Chase Park attracts a number of youth to its after-school program during the school year and to its outdoor pool in the summer months. Adults participate in men’s, women’s and mixed basketball leagues ranging from competitive to strictly recreational. Throughout the year, the park offers indoor soccer, volleyball and softball leagues for adults, as well as a step aerobics class.
Chase Park holds seasonal play productions in its auditorium and continues to expand the talent of its community theatre group through open auditions. Previous productions have included “Life is a Dream,” “Hamlet,” “Summer Brave” and “Romeo & Juliet.”Chase Park Theatre was honored by the Illinois Theatre Association to receive the 2007 Service Award for Outstanding Contributions in the Community Theatre Division.
In 2007, we initiated The Young Actors program, a series of literature-based productions by, for, and about young people. Play selection is done by the ensemble, in consultation with director Karen Fort. These are fully staged, full productions. The script is edited to a practical and accomplishable length and cast size. All performances are open to the public, and we encourage participation by youth age 10+, with a special focus on teens and High School age youth.
Neighborhood parents gather at the park to participate in Moms, Pops and Tots and play groups for preschoolers. Others get involved as coaches for growing Saturday sports programs such as youth soccer, bitty basketball and t-ball.
Chase Park contains a 1/5-mile, four-lane, rubberized-surface running track, two baseball fields, one football/soccer field, four tennis courts and a large playground area.
History
In 1920, the Lincoln Park Commission converted a deserted semi-professional baseball field into Chase Park. Known as Gunther Park, the ball field was home to the Niesen-Gunther team beginning in 1905. The facility went out of business in 1913, during the construction of Chicago's north side professional baseball field, Wrigley Field. A community member suggested the conversion of the old ball field into a park in 1914, and several years later the Ravenswood Improvement Association and some local officials petitioned for the park. The Lincoln Park Commission finally began land acquisition in 1920. Within the next two years, tennis courts, a playground, an athletic field, a wading pool, and a fieldhouse were constructed in Chase Park. In 1934, the Lincol park commission was consolidated into the Chicago park district. The Park district demolished chas Park's original fieldhouse and replaced it with a new building in 1976.
Chase Park was one of seven neighborhood parks created by the Lincoln Park Commission. Five of them were named in honor of President Abraham Lincoln's cabinet members. Chase Park honors Salmon P. Chase (1803-1873), who served as Lincoln's secretary of the treasury from 1861 to 1864. In late 1864, Lincoln appointed Chase Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Early in his career, Chase became well known as a defender of runaway slaves and leader in the anti-slavery movement. As one of his initial acts as Chief Justice, he appointed John Rock, the nation's first African-American attorney to argue before the Supreme Court.
