O'Hallaren (Bernard) Park

O'Hallaren Park, in the south side Auburn Gresham neighborhood, is one of many city parks created to meet the recreational needs of post-World War II Chicago. After leasing land from the Board of Education in 1946, the city began improving the site with a small recreational building, a multi-purpose athletic field that could be flooded for ice skating in winter, and a playground with separate areas for boys, girls, and small children. On December 22, 1947, the city officially named the site O'Hallaren Park, in honor of 18th Ward Alderman Bernard J. O'Hallaren (--1947), who had died suddenly the previous week. Elected alderman in 1939, O'Hallaren had been an enthusiastic and untiring supporter of the park, dying just a few months short of its completion. In 1959, the city transferred management of O'Hallaren Park to the Chicago Park District, which added basketball and volleyball courts in 1966 and a spray pool and tennis courts in the early 1980s. Within a few years of rehabilitating and replanting the playground area in 1988, the park district acquired formal ownership of the park from the Board of Education.