Welcome to Chicago Women's Park
Welcome to Chicago Women's Park
A clubroom at Women's Park
A clubroom at Women's Park
The Botanical Gardens fountain
The Botanical Gardens fountain
Happy Summer Day Campers at Women's Park
Happy Summer Day Campers at Women's Park
"Helping Hands" honoring Jane Addams
"Helping Hands" memorializes Jane Addams
The Clarke House
The Clarke House
Location:

1801 S. Indiana Ave.
Chicago, IL 60616

Supervisor: Talonna Sharp
Phone Numbers: Main (312) 328-0821

 

Hours

Park Hours
Day Time slot Comment
Sunday: 6:00 am-11:00 pm
Monday: 6:00 am-11:00 pm
Tuesday: 6:00 am-11:00 pm
Wednesday: 6:00 am-11:00 pm
Thursday: 6:00 am-11:00 pm
Friday: 6:00 am-11:00 pm
Saturday: 6:00 am-11:00 pm
Fieldhouse Hours
Day Time slot Comment
Sunday Closed
Monday 8:30 am-7:00 pm
Tuesday 8:30 am-7:00 pm
Wednesday 8:30 am-7:00 pm
Thursday 8:30 am-7:00 pm
Friday 8:30 am-7:00 pm
Saturday 9:00 am-5:00 pm

Description

Located in the Near South Side community, locally known as the South Loop, Chicago Women’s Park & Gardens totals 3.23 acres and formerly housed the Vietnam Veterans Museum. Opened to the public in 2000, Chicago Women’s Park and Gardens honors the contributions women have made to the city throughout its history and provides a quiet respite for the community.  View the Chicago Women's Park & Gardens brochure that celebrates many of these women.

The park's fieldhouse features an indoor children’s playground, a cafe and meeting room facilities. The recently renovated second and third-floor space includes three new fitness studios, a kids' club room and the Kids Science Labs (KSL), which offer hands-on science classes, summer camps and field trips for kids ages 2-12. 

Outside, the park offers a community garden and landscaped grounds. The grounds are complete with an ornamental fountain, the "Helping Hands" sculpture honoring Jane Addams, and passive green space that is available for rental for children’s birthday parties, meetings and other special events.

Chicago Women’s Park and Gardens is located within the Prairie Avenue Historic District and nestled between two house museums— the Widow Clarke House and the Glessner House. 

Park-goers visit Chicago Women's Park and Gardens to enjoy programs and fitness opportunities, including Mom, Pop and Tot classes, bridge tournaments and yoga. In the summer, youth attend the Park District’s popular six-week day camp. Specialty camps are also offered, including preschool activities. In addition to programs, Chicago Women’s Park hosts fun special events throughout the year for the whole family, including movies, concerts and other Night Out in the Parks events.

The Clarke House Museum, which sits adjacent to the gardens, was built in 1836 for Henry B. Clarke. The structure is Chicago’s oldest house. Over the years, the house survived fires, belonged to a church and was moved twice. During the second move, the house was stuck in the air for two weeks!

Chicago Women's Park Exhibit Brochure
View the park brochure created to celebrate significant Chicago women.   Images of some of these women adorn the front windows and two-story entrance of the fieldhouse. 
 

History

In 2009, the Chicago Park District acquired the land and a building that was the former home of the National Vietnam Veteran’s Art Museum and converted the building into a fieldhouse. More property was acquired in 2009 and 2010 from the City of Chicago to complete the park. The City retained ownership of the historic Clarke House Museum and the land underneath, which is surrounded by the park.

Landscape architect Mimi McKay and architect Tannys Langdon designed Chicago Women’s Park and Garden, which opened to the public in 2000. The small scale of the park and its lushly planted borders enhance the space’s contemplative feeling.

The centerpiece of the park's design is the Botanical Gardens Fountain with a copper-coated cast iron basin created by Robinson Iron of Alexander City, Alabama. A winding path along the perimeter of the site serves as a metaphor of a woman as she moves in and out of traditional boundaries and roles through the course of her life.

In 2011, the Chicago Park District installed a monument in the park in homage to Jane Addams (1860 – 1935), Chicago’s famous social reformer and Nobel Peace Prize winner. Internationally renowned artist Louise Bourgeios (1911 – 2010) created the artwork, which was first dedicated on the city’s lakefront in 1996. The sculpture was commissioned by the B.F. Ferguson Fund of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Representatives of the Art Institute selected Bourgeios because they knew that the surrealist artist would portray Jane Addams through a symbolically powerful artwork rather than a depictive figurative sculpture. Bourgeios produced a series of carved granite hands that sit on rough-hewn granite bases. The monument, which is also known as “Helping Hands,” recognizes the humanity of Addams’ efforts, as well as the large number of people she helped.

Speaking about her work in a 2007 PBS Documentary film, “From Art in the 21st Century,” Louise Bourgeois said, “A work of art does not have to be explained... If you do not have any feeling about this, I cannot explain it to you. If this doesn't touch you, I have failed.”

"Helping Hands" entails six rough hewn stone bases which each support a hand or series of carved black granite hands representing a broad range of people of different ages and backgrounds. The current installation reflects the artist’s original arrangement of the sculptures and their positions.

Describing the significance of the artist and her approach to this project, Michael Darling, a Chief Curator at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art explains, “Louise Bourgeois is one of the most important and influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, primarily because she has addressed central aspects of the human condition in her work. Channeling the issues raised during her tumultuous childhood, she has focused her work on ideas about inter-personal communication, nurturing, alienation, belonging, motherhood, sensuality, birth and death, among many other themes. This sculpture is an excellent example of how she suggests these concepts in a truly universal form—through the motif of the human hand.”

Advisory Council

Contact: Pamela Alfero,   Vice President
Meeting Details:

Every 6 weeks - 2020 -February 4,  March 10 , April 21, 2019  (annual elections), June 9,  July 21,  August 25, October 6, December 8th

Out of an abundance of caution Park Advisory Council Meetings will be held virtually for the near future. Please contact the Chicago Women's PAC for details.

Parking/Directions

For directions using public transportation visit www.transitchicago.com.

Map & Facilities

Botanical Gardens Fountain at Chicago Women's

1801 S Indiana Ave
Chicago, IL 60616
United States

Chicago Women's Indoor Playground

1801 S Indiana Ave
Chicago, IL 60616
United States

Chicago Women's - Spoke & Byrd | Concession

205 E 18th St
Chicago, IL 60616
United States

:
(929) 263-2473

Chicago Women's Fitness Studio

1801 S. Indiana Ave.
Chicago, IL 60616
United States

Chicago Women's Park and Garden Community Garden

1801 S. Indiana
Chicago, IL 60616
United States

Chicago Women's Fieldhouse

1801 S Indiana Ave
Chicago, IL 60616
United States

Helping Hands | Artwork

1801 S Indiana Ave
Chicago, IL 60616
United States

Kids Science Lab

1801 S. Indiana Ave.
Chicago, IL 60616
United States

Botanical Gardens Fountain
Botanical Gardens Fountain at Chicago Women's

1801 S Indiana Ave
Chicago, IL 60616
United States

Show on Map
Chicago Women's Indoor Playground

1801 S Indiana Ave
Chicago, IL 60616
United States

Show on Map
default image
Chicago Women's - Spoke & Byrd | Concession

205 E 18th St
Chicago, IL 60616
United States

:
(929) 263-2473
Show on Map
Chicago Women's Fitness Studio

1801 S. Indiana Ave.
Chicago, IL 60616
United States

Show on Map
Chicago Women's Park and Garden Community Garden

1801 S. Indiana
Chicago, IL 60616
United States

Show on Map
Chicago Women's Fieldhouse

1801 S Indiana Ave
Chicago, IL 60616
United States

Show on Map
Helping Hands
Helping Hands | Artwork

1801 S Indiana Ave
Chicago, IL 60616
United States

Show on Map
Kids Science Lab

1801 S. Indiana Ave.
Chicago, IL 60616
United States

Show on Map