Williams (Daniel Hale) Park

2710 S Dearborn Chicago IL 60616

Hours: Park: 6am - 11pm, Fieldhouse: 8:00am - 8:30pm

Park Supervisor:
Thomas Griffin

(312) 747-7107

Description

Located in the Douglas Community Area, Williams Park totals 8.51 acres and the park offers an athletic field, playground equipment, a small recreation building, a spray pool, and horse shoe, tennis, and basketball courts, and an interactive water spray feature offers community children relief from Chicago's hot summers. Williams Park also uses the gymnasium facility and rooms in the adjacent Williams School. Park-goers can play baseball, basketball and table games at the facility. Afterschool programs are offered throughout the school year, and in the summer youth attend the Park District’s popular six-week day camp. In addition to programs, Williams Park hosts fun special events throughout the year for the whole family, such as holiday events.

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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 Tuesday, April 16 at 9 am, and in-person registration begins Monday, April 22. 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
Baseball Field	2710 S Dearborn Chicago IL 60616	3
Fieldhouse	2710 S Dearborn Chicago IL 60616	1
Football / Soccer - Grass	2710 S Dearborn Chicago IL 60616	1
Gymnasiums	2710 S Dearborn Chicago IL 60616	1
Water Spray Features	2710 S Dearborn Chicago IL 60616	1

History

During and after World War I, many African-Americans arrived in the Douglas neighborhood from the rural south, and the community soon became the heart of Black Chicago. By the early 1940s, government urban renewal projects led to the demolition of much of the neighborhood's aging housing stock, with large areas of public housing taking its place. Among the new housing projects was the 800-unit Dearborn Homes, opened in 1950. As planning for this complex progressed, the Chicago Housing Authority began working with the Chicago Park District to provide parkland for the new development. The park district purchased more than 6 acres of property from CHA in 1950, awarding contracts for landscape improvements and utilities the following year. Construction of a neighborhood school on adjacent land moved forward simultaneously, and the park district soon began using the school's gymnasium as a fieldhouse in the evenings and on weekends. Over the years, the park district added an athletic field, playground equipment, a small recreation building, a spray pool, and horse shoe, tennis, and basketball courts. A recently-installed interactive waterplay area offers community children relief from Chicago's hot summers. Both the park and the adjacent school bear the name of Dr. Daniel Hale Williams (1856-1931), the pre-eminent African-American surgeon of his time. Having arrived in Chicago in 1880, Williams entered the Chicago Medical College, graduating three years later. Unable to join the staff of any city hospital due to his race, in 1891 Williams founded the predominantly-black Provident Hospital in a three-story building at 29th and Dearborn Streets, just a few blocks from the site of Williams Park and School. Provident offered the country's first nursing school for African-Americans. Not long after founding Provident Hospital, Williams gained international fame for performing the world's first successful open heart surgery in 1893.