Edison (Thomas Alva) Park

Edison Park takes its name from the surrounding Edison Park community, named in 1892 for American inventor Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931). The area's first settler, Rev. Christian Ebinger (1812-1879), Sr., headed west from Detroit with his family in 1833. When their horse fell dead from a rattle snake bite 15 miles northwest of Chicago, the Ebingers decided to settle on the spot. In 1907, the Village of Edison Park built a new public school, naming it for Christian Ebinger. After Chicago annexed Edison Park in 1910, Ebinger School came under the jurisdiction of the Chicago Board of Education. The financial pressures of the Great Depression necessitated the consolidation of Chicago's 22 independent park boards into the Chicago Park District in 1934. Two years later, the park district began leasing Ebinger School and its site from the Board of Education. Though the park district inherited more than 100 parks from the 22 independent boards, the Ebinger School property was the first park to be developed by the new agency. Renaming the property Edison Park in 1937, the park district began rehabilitating the school building and its grounds to provide fieldhouse facilities and an attractive surrounding greenspace. The fieldhouse soon offered a library; game and club rooms; and spaces for wood working, weaving, and other crafts. In 1988, a new soft surface playground was installed adjacent to the historic fieldhouse.