Eugene Field Park

5100 N. Ridgeway Ave. Chicago IL 60625

Hours: Park: 6am - 11pm

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

Park Supervisor:
Tracy Brumley

(773) 478-9744

Description

Check out our new playground! Eugene Field serves its diverse Albany Park community with numerous athletic programs such as basketball, soccer, and floor hockey, as well as step aerobics, and badminton. For the little ones we have a variety of early childhood programs such as Moms, Pops, and Tots, Art & ABC’s, Preschool and Tot Spot to name a few.

We invite you to visit the program page to view a complete listing of park programs.

The Chicago River runs through the more than 12-acre Eugene Field, providing a beautiful natural landscape for visitors. The park also features two baseball fields and outdoor basketball court, four tennis courts, and a playground and spray pool. Eugene Field exposes community members to the arts with a number of cultural offerings through programs, performances and partnerships. Both youth and adults get into the act with various drama programs at the park, and oil painting.

Albany Park Theatre Project (APTP) is an Arts Partner in Residence at Eugene Field. Formed in 1997, APTP is an ensemble of local teenagers who create original theatre from real-life stories and experiences of this working-class Albany Park community. The group typically presents one full-scale productions per year in Laura Wiley Theater at Eugene Field Park. For more information, visit http://www.aptpchicago.org/.

A 45-foot by 10-foot exterior clay and ceramic tile mosaic installed on the exterior of the fieldhouse was designed and created by 15 local teens in the Gallery 37 in the Parks program, the artwork depicts scenes from poems by the late children’s poet Eugene Field, such as “Wynken, Blyken and Nod” and “The Bellflower Tree.” The park also features an interior WPA mural dedicated to the arts.

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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	DESCRIPTOR	QTY	NOTES
Baseball Field	5100 N. Ridgeway Ave.	Softball, T-Ball	2
Basketball Court - Outdoor	5100 N. Ridgeway Ave.	Lighted	1
Community Gardens	5100 N. Ridgeway Ave.	Edible	1	Community Garden
Fieldhouse	5100 N. Ridgeway Ave.		1
Gymnasiums	5100 N. Ridgeway Ave.		1
Meeting/Event Space	5100 N. Ridgeway Ave.		2	Clubrooms
Playgrounds	5100 N. Ridgeway Ave.		1
Tennis Courts	5100 N. Ridgeway Ave.		4
Water Spray Features	5100 N. Ridgeway Ave.		1

History

Eugene Field Park was created by the Albany Park District, an independent park board formed in 1917 to provide recreational facilities and enhance the Chicago River's banks in the rapidly-developing North Park and Albany Park communities. In 1923, the Albany Park District began purchasing nearly ten acres of riverside land in the center of its territory. Although land acquisition took a full decade, landscape architect Henry J. Stockman soon prepared a plan that took full advantage of the picturesque river bank site, and improvements began in 1925. In 1928, Clarence Hatzfeld, a member of the park board and architect of many northwest side recreational, commercial, and residential buildings, designed a Tudor Revival-style fieldhouse for the park. A stone grotto and fountain originally graced the front of the fieldhouse. Inside, a Federal Works Progress Administration artist created a mural entitled "The Participation of Youth in the Realm of the Arts." In 1934, the financial stresses of the Great Depression prompted consolidation of the city's 22 independent park boards, including the Albany Park District, into the unified Chicago Park District. By 1938, Eugene Field Park had a playground, a wading pool, tennis courts, and a lovely wooded picnic area. A decade later, the park district expanded the site by more than two acres, improving the new property with baseball and football fields. In 1980, the park district began leasing another half-acre of city land along the riverbank. Recent park improvements include a soft surface playground and ornamental fencing along Foster Avenue. The park honors writer and poet Eugene Field (1850-1895), a nationally-renowned children's author. Among Field's best known works are "Little Boy Blue," "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod," and the "Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat." Born in St. Louis, Field worked for a number of western and midwestern newspapers before being recruited by the Chicago Daily News to write a humor column in 1883. Field made his home on Chicago's north side.