Carver (George Washington) Park

Carver Park lies adjacent to the Chicago Housing Authority's Altgeld Gardens housing development and the Chicago Board of Education's George Washington Carver School. When the C.H.A. constructed Altgeld Gardens in 1943/1944, the project quadrupled the housing stock in the Riverdale neighborhood. Several years later, the Chicago Park District, recognizing the increasing need for recreational opportunities, began to purchase land for park development. Today, in addition to maintaining extensive outdoor recreational facilities at Carver Park, the Chicago Park District operates the Altgeld Garden Homes Community Center jointly with C.H.A. and the board of education. George Washington Carver (c.1861-1943), for whom both the park and the neighboring school are named, was a highly-influential African-American scientist. Born to a slave mother, Carver had to support himself from an early age, but managed to obtain bachelor's and master's degrees from Iowa State Agricultural College once he reached his 30s. In 1896, he moved to Alabama to direct the newly-organized department of agriculture at the Tuskegee Institute. Carver urged southern farmers to plant alternative crops - peanuts, soybeans, sweet potatoes - to replenish soil devastated by years of uninterrupted cotton production. When there proved to be little commercial demand for these crops, Carver embarked on extensive research to develop marketable derivative products. Carver's work at Tuskegee dramatically altered agricultural production in the south and greatly stimulated the region's economy.