Events
Aug
17
Aug
17
Hours
Park Hours
Description
Located along by the Kennedy Expressway (north of Belmont Avenue and west of Kimball Avenue) in the Avondale Community Area, this 1.24 acre park contains an outdoor swimming pool and spray pool, a playground with sandbox, as well as a field house with four clubrooms, two kitchens, a gymnasium, and a gymnastics center.
With an emphasis on youth gymnastics, Avondale Park is home to one of the park district’s 9 gymnastics centers.The gymnastics center, offers quality instruction for beginners to advanced competitors year-round.
Avondale Park offers a large selection of programming for patrons of all ages and skill levels. The park boasts an active roster of after-school programs for children ages 6-12. Choose from a list of available seasonal activities—fitness, floor hockey, arts & crafts, flag football, basketball, recreational tumbling, track & field, volleyball and baseball skills to name a few.
In the summer, youth attend our popular and always affordable 6-week day camp…filled with tons of fun. Plus, community residence can take advantage of the outdoor swimming pool – what a great way to cool off!
Throughout the year, the park offers the adult population indoor soccer and volleyball. We invite you to come out and check out all that Avondale Park has to offer!
Check out the offering of our Arts Partner - NOUMENON dance ensemble. For additional info and class schedule click here.
History
Created by the Irving Park District, Avondale Park takes its name from the surrounding Avondale neighborhood. An early racially-integrated suburb, Avondale became part of Chicago when the city annexed the Town of Jefferson in 1889. European immigrants began settling there and residential construction boomed in the 1920s. In 1929, the Irving Park District board responded by making plans for the park. Land acquisition was initiated in 1925 and completed in 1930. Although it took several years to acquire all of the land, improvements began immediately. By the end of the year, the park district had constructed an attractive brick fieldhouse designed by Clarence Hatzfeld. Lawn, shrubbery, trees, and flowers soon graced Avondale Park's landscape. By the early 1930s, the park included a playfield, separate boys' and girls' playgrounds, a wading pool, a sand box, and tennis courts. Avondale Park became part of the Chicago Park District in 1934, when the Great Depression necessitated the consolidation of the city's 22 independent park agencies. Twenty-five years later, the park's size was reduced to just over one acre when its entire northeast portion was taken to make way for the Kennedy Expressway. Eliminating Avondale Park's playfield and tennis courts, the park district redesigned the site to incorporate volleyball and basketball courts and a swimming pool. In the early 1990s, the park district installed a new soft surface playground in Avondale Park, and replanted its landscape.
