Avondale Park

3516 W School St Chicago, IL 60618

Hours: Park: 6am - 11pm

Fieldhouse: M 9am - 7pm, W F 9am - 9pm Sa 9am - 5pm, Su Closed

Park Supervisor:
Paul Serritella

(773) 478-1410

Description

Located along by the Kennedy Expressway (north of Belmont Avenue and west of Kimball Avenue), this 1.17-acre park contains an outdoor swimming pool and spray pool, two basketball standards, a playground with sandbox, as well as a field house with four clubrooms, two kitchens, a gymnasium, and a gymnastics center.

With an emphasis on youth gymnastics, Avondale Park is home to one of the park district’s 9 gymnastics centers.The gymnastics center, offers quality instruction for beginners to advanced competitors year-round.

Avondale Park offers a large selection of programming for patrons of all ages and skill levels. The park boasts an active roster of after-school programs for children ages 6-12. Choose from a list of available seasonal activities—fitness, floor hockey, arts & crafts, flag football, basketball, recreational tumbling, track & field, volleyball and baseball skills to name a few.

In the summer, youth attend our popular and always affordable 6-week day camp…filled with tons of fun. Plus, community residence can take advantage of the outdoor swimming pool – what a great way to cool off!

Throughout the year, the park offers the adult population indoor soccer and volleyball. We invite you to come out and check out all that Avondale Park has to offer!

View All

AVONDALE PARK AND AVONDALE PARK GYMNASTIC CENTER

Gymnastic Center - (773) 478-5895

SPRING PROGRAMS:
Register online or in-person for spring programs now. Spring programs run the week of April 1 through the week of June 3.

SUMMER PROGRAMS:

Online registration for our park’s summer programs begins Monday, April 15 at 9 am, and in-person registration begins Saturday, April 20. The standard 6-week summer camp program runs July 1 through August 9. Most other summer programs run the week of June 17 through the week of August 19.

FACILITIES

FACILITY TYPE	ADDRESS	QTY	NOTES
Basketball Court - Outdoor	3516 W. School St.	1
Fieldhouse	3516 W. School St.	1
Gymnasiums	3516 W. School St.	1
Gymnastics Centers	3516 W. School	1
Meeting/Event Space	3516 W. School St.	5
Playgrounds	3516 W. School St.	1
Swimming Pools - Outdoor	3516 W. School St.	1	Closed for the season.
Water Spray Features	3516 W. School St.	1

History

Created by the Irving Park District, Avondale Park takes its name from the surrounding Avondale neighborhood. An early racially-integrated suburb, Avondale became part of Chicago when the city annexed the Town of Jefferson in 1889. European immigrants began settling there and residential construction boomed in the 1920s. In 1929, the Irving Park District board responded by making plans for the five-acre park. Although it took several years to acquire all of the land, improvements began immediately. By the end of the year, the park district had constructed an attractive brick fieldhouse designed by Clarence Hatzfeld. Lawn, shrubbery, trees, and flowers soon graced Avondale Park's landscape. By the early 1930s, the park included a playfield, separate boys' and girls' playgrounds, a wading pool, a sand box, and tennis courts. Avondale Park became part of the Chicago Park District in 1934, when the Great Depression necessitated the consolidation of the city's 22 independent park agencies. Twenty-five years later, the park's size was reduced to just over one acre when its entire northeast portion was taken to make way for the Kennedy Expressway. Eliminating Avondale Park's playfield and tennis courts, the park district redesigned the site to incorporate volleyball and basketball courts and a swimming pool. In the early 1990s, the park district installed a new soft surface playground in Avondale Park, and replanted its landscape.