Hiawatha Park
History
Hiawatha Park was one of many parks created through a ten-year program providing additional recreational space for post-World War II Chicago. In 1947, the Chicago Park District selected a 12-acre park site in the Dunning community. Land acquisition moved slowly, however. Improvements began nearly a decade later, and Hiawatha Park opened to the public in 1958. The park district installed a fieldhouse and swimming pool in subsequent years.
Hiawatha Park honors an Onandaga Indian chief, who formed the League of Five Nations, the famed Iroquois confederation. Over the centuries, Hiawatha (ca. 1570) became an almost mystical figure for Native Americans, and poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) further mythologized him in "The Song of Hiawatha." The park name was suggested by community residents, who wished to carry on the tradition of naming Chicago parks for Indian tribes, people, and places.
