Mann (James) Park

In 1883, Achilles Hegewisch determined to establish an "ideal workingman's community" at the south end of Lake Calumet. He moved his United States Rolling Stock Company to the area, built worker housing, and encouraged other industrialists to do the same. Unfortunately, Hegewisch's death in the 1890s pushed the area into decline. Hoping to better the community's prospects, civic groups in 1907 lobbied the South Park Commission to develop a neighborhood park. The following year, the commission purchased the 20 acres that would become Mann Park. The property was one of four sites the commission acquired at the time to expand its revolutionary system of neighborhood parks, the first ten of which had opened in 1905 (another four had been temporarily delayed). The original ten, with their innovative fieldhouses, were an immediate success. In 1910, the South Park Commission hired the Olmsted Brothers, landscape designers for the previous neighborhood parks, to lay out the four new parks. Although the commission chose not to use these plans, in-house designers developed a new set of plans inspired by them. The plan for Mann Park was virtually identical to those implemented at the three other parks, Grand Crossing, Trumbull, and Tuley Parks. Filling and grading began at once and improvements soon followed, however, the Olmsted-inspired plan was never fully realized at Mann Park. The park's fieldhouse was not completed until 1934, the year the Chicago Park District took over. With its ecclectic style and red tile roof, the Mann Park fieldhouse was very different from the earlier classical buildings at Trumbull and Grand Crossing Parks. Originally known as Hegewisch Park, this park was designated Mann Park in 1922. James R. Mann (1856-1922) served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1897 until his death in 1922. Prior to his election, Mann had served as attorney for the South Park Commission.