Weisman Playlot Park (c/o Sheil Park)
History
Weisman Park is one of many playgrounds developed by the City of Chicago just after World War II. In 1949, the city purchased its site on Oakdale Avenue in the Lakeview neighborhood using Playground Bond funds. By 1950, the Bureau of Parks and Recreation had installed a spray pool, a sand box, and playground equipment. The city transferred the park to the Chicago Park District in 1959, along with more than 250 other properties. The playground was updated in the early 1990s.
Known for several decades as Oakdale Park for the adjacent street, the park was renamed for local resident Albert Weisman (1915-1974) in 1983. A native of St. Louis and a journalist by trade, Weisman spent 18 years as head of public relations for Chicago advertising firm Foote, Cone, and Belding before becoming the University of Chicago's Director of Public Affairs. He was a member of the Lincoln Park Zoological Society Board of Directors and a Trustee of Columbia College, where he taught urban politics. Patriotically-inclined, Weisman may have been best known as the founder of the Wellington-Oakdale Old Glory Marching Society Memorial Day Parades, where "everyone marches, nobody watches." A public drinking fountain in Lincoln Park is also dedicated in his honor.
