Kosciuszko Park
History
Dedicated in 1916, Kosciuszko Park takes its name from Polish patriot Thadeuz Kosciuszko (1756-1817). Kosciuszko came to America in 1776. Shortly thereafter, the Continental Congress appointed him colonel of engineers. For his success building fortifications at Saratoga and elsewhere along the Hudson River, he was awarded with U.S. citizenship and the rank of brigadier general. In 1784, Kosciuszko returned to Poland, where he led his country's military forces in the uprising of 1794.
Kosciuszko was among the original parks of the Northwest Park District, one of 22 park commissions consolidated into the Chicago Park District in 1934. Established in 1911, the Northwest Park District aimed to provide one park for each of the ten square miles within its growing middle-class jurisdiction. The Northwest Park District began to purchase land for Mozart, Kelyvn, and Kosciuszko Parks in early 1914. Improvement of the three sites began almost immediately. For Kosciuszko, architect Albert A. Schwartz designed a Tudor revival-style fieldhouse, expanded in 1936 to include an assembly hall. The Chicago Park District built a natatorium there in the 1980s.
