Jackson (Robert) Playlot Park
History
In 1914, the City of Chicago purchased the site of Robert J. Jackson Park for use as a municipal tuberculosis sanitarium. After the sanitarium closed, Robert J. Jackson (--1942), 3rd Ward alderman from 1918 to 1939, urged the city to convert the site to parkland. By 1950, the new park had been named in Jackson's honor, and the Bureau of Parks and Recreation had improved it with a spray pool, a sand box, and playground equipment. In 1959, the city began leasing the quarter-acre playlot to the Chicago Park District, which gained full ownership in 1981.