Kensington Playground Park
History
In 1942, the City of Chicago purchased property for Kensington Park, using Playground Bond funds. The city soon transformed the site into a playlot and constructed a small fieldhouse. In 1949, the Chicago City Council designated the property Kensington Playground. Kensington was an early village in what is now the West Pullman community. Originally known as Calumet Station, the village sprang up after the Illinois Central and Michigan Central Railroad Companies built a station there in 1852. (Nineteenth-century residents are said to have disliked the newer "Kensington" name, preferring the older name common to nearby Lake Calumet and the Calumet, Grand Calumet, and Little Calumet Rivers.) Kensington was annexed to Chicago in 1889. The city transferred the park to the Chicago Park District in 1959.
