Limas Playground Park
History
In 1926, the City of Chicago acquired a small parcel of land along Trumbull Avenue in the heavily built-up South Lawndale neighborhood. By 1930, the city's Bureau of Parks and Recreation had improved the site with a playfield that was flooded for ice skating in winter. The city also constructed a small office building, long since demolished. The city transferred the park, along with more than 250 other park properties, to the Chicago Park District in 1959. In 1982, the park district installed a new spray pool. A new soft surface playground was added in 1991.
Originally known as Trumbull Park for Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice and U.S. Senator Lyman Trumbull (1813-1896), the site was renamed Limas Park in 1982. The new name honors Juliann Hope Limas (1965--1981), one of two innocent bystanders tragically slain in a gun fight between rival gangs on August 16, 1981. Limas, a sophomore at Young High School, was a member of the Marquette District Police Explorers, and had hoped to become a police youth officer later in life.
