Rutherford Sayre Park

6871 W. Belden Ave. Chicago IL 60635

Hours: Park: 6am - 11pm

Fieldhouse: M-F 9am-8:30pm, Sa 9am-1pm, Su closed

Park Supervisor:
George Mavrou

(312) 746-5368

Description

Rutherford Sayre Park is located in Chicago’s Montclare community (with Oak Park Avenue at the eastern edge of the park—and close to Chicago’s border with Elmwood Park: two blocks south of where Fullerton Avenue changes its name to Grand Avenue).

The park is over twelve acres in size, and its fieldhouse contains a fitness center, gymnasium, and kitchen. Outside, the park offers two junior baseball fields, a softball field, a combination football-soccer field, two tennis courts, a new ADA soft-surface playground with spray pool, a nature area, plus passive recreation areas.

Rutherford Sayre Park offers a great variety of programming for all ages. Toddlers / preschoolers can enjoy Fun & Games, Moms Pops & Tots Interaction. Recreation includes the fitness center / weight training, baseball, basketball, dodgeball, flag football, floor hockey, golf, seasonal sports, soccer, team tumbling, volleyball, and (Olympic) weight lifting. In the summer, youth can attend the Park District’s popular six-week day camp.

On the cultural side, Rutherford Sayre Park offers several visual arts programs, including arts & crafts, drawing & (water color) painting, and ceramics. Nature programming involves a community garden. The teen art camp has created several colorful mosaics within the park's grounds.

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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	6871 W. Belden Ave. Chicago IL 60635		3
Community Gardens	6871 W. Belden Ave.	Ornamental	1	Community Garden
Fieldhouse	6871 W. Belden Ave. Chicago IL 60635		1
Fitness Centers	6871 W. Belden Ave. Chicago IL 60635		1	M-F, 10-8pm; Sa, 10-12:30pm; Su, Closed Sign up for a membershipADA accessible equipment
Football / Soccer - Grass	6871 W. Belden Ave. Chicago IL 60635		1
Gymnasiums	6871 W. Belden Ave. Chicago IL 60635		1
Meeting/Event Space	6871 W. Belden Ave. Chicago IL 60635		1
Playgrounds	6871 W. Belden Ave. Chicago IL 60635		1
Roller Hockey Rinks	6871 W. Belden Ave. Chicago IL 60635		1
Tennis Courts	6871 W. Belden Ave. Chicago IL 60635		2
Water Spray Features	6871 W. Belden Ave. Chicago IL 60635		1

History

In mid-1999, the Chicago Park District combined three of its parks (Rutherford, Sayre, and Rutherford Sayre) to form Rutherford Sayre Park. The three separate parks, lying adjacent to the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad tracks on the city's northwest side, had long been treated as one by area residents. All three were set aside as parkland just before World War I and came under the control of the Chicago Park District in 1959. The park properties were donated by two local families, the Sayres and Rutherfords, who had farmed and later subdivided the surrounding area. The western portions of the parkland had been part of the Sayre homestead, purchased by William E. Sayre in the early 1830s. Thomas A. Rutherford, the area's first postmaster, donated the eastern section, at the southwest corner of Belden and Oak Park Avenues. In 1916, the Northwest Park District began to improve the area north of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul tracks, erecting a fieldhouse with an assembly hall and a gymnasium. Per a stipulation in the Rutherford deed, the fieldhouse originally included a bowling alley as well, an unusual feature for a Chicago park fieldhouse. In the 1920s, the Chicago Landscape Company designed a spray pool for the park.