Ridge Park

Ridge Park was the first of five Beverly neighborhood parks created by the Ridge Park District, one of 22 independent park boards consolidated into the Chicago Park District in 1934. Soon after its 1908 establishment, the Ridge Park District began a search for park property. Enthusiastic residents advocated the purchase of property along Longwood Drive, already the site of "fine homes set in spacious grounds." The park district's board of commissioners agreed, and in 1911 and 1912 acquired 10 acres of property, including a small, City-owned park. The new park was named Ridge Park for the tree-studded ridge that runs along the park's western boundary, the one-time shore line of glacial Lake Chicago. John Todd Hetherington (1858 - 1936) was a Canadian-born architect who lived in the Beverly neighborhood served as a member of the Ridge Park Board of Commissioners from 1911 to 1913. Hetherington had originally recommended another local architect, Arthur Foster, to design the park. In 1912, however, the other board members asked Hetherington to take on the project. Hetherington created an original plan including a small field house, outdoor swimming pool, wading pool, and a running track. Constructed in 1913, the building and athletic facilities were all surrounded by a restful landscape of trees, shrubbery, flowers, lawns, and walks. The fashionable Beverly district grew dramatically during the 1920s, and by late in that decade, Ridge Park was in need of a much larger field house. By this time, John T. Hetherington had formed a partnership with his son Murray D. Hetherington (1891 - 1972). The Ridge Park District commissioned Hetherington architects to design a much larger brick fieldhouse for the park. They retained a part of the old field house as the auditorium, incorporating some of the room's original features such as its trusses. They also built the addition around the outdoor swimming pool, which then became an indoor aquatic facility. In addition to the indoor swimming pool, gymnasium, auditorium and club rooms, the building also provided a home for the John H. Vanderpoel Memorial Art Gallery, a collection of some 500 works by American painters and sculptors. The Vanderpoel collection was assembled to honor the contributions of Beverly resident John H. Vanderpoel (1857-1911), who taught painting at the Art Institute for more than 30 years and who, with his mentor, Art Institute Director, W.M.R. French, helped to make Beverly a culturally-rich community.  In 1934, Ridge Park became part of the Chicago Park District’s portfolio when the 22 park districts were consolidated.  Most of the works displayed were donated by the artists themselves out of respect for Vanderpoel's genius. Ridge Park includes a number of monuments to veterans of various wars. In the early 1990s, the Park District grouped these together in a single memorial area when the community sought to recognize Beverly resident and U.S. Marine Corps Captain William J. Hurley (1963-1991), who died while on a training mission during the Desert Storm conflict.