Bessemer (Henry) Park

The South Park Commission created Bessemer Park in 1904 as part of what proved to be a nationally influential neighborhood park system. At the time, vast numbers of immigrants were arriving in Chicago with hopes of achieving the "American dream." Instead, many found intolerable living and working conditions. The city's existing parks were too far away to offer any relief. Superintendent J. Frank Foster conceived a new type of park for these areas. The innovative parks not only provided beautifully landscaped "breathing spaces," but also public bathing, the city's first branch libraries, classes and vocational training, inexpensive hot meals, health care, and a variety of recreational programs. Nationally renowned landscape architects the Olmsted Brothers and architects Daniel H. Burnham and Co. designed the whole system of new parks. In addition to Bessemer Park, the neighborhood park system included Ogden, Sherman, Palmer, and Hamilton Parks, and Mark White, Russell, Davis, Armour, Cornell Squares.

Bessemer Park was named for Sir Henry Bessemer (1813-1898), an Englishman who perfected the process of making steel which revolutionized the steel industry worldwide. The name is especially appropriate because the park is located a mile away from South Chicago's once-thriving steel mills.