Fernwood Park

Fernwood Park takes its name from the surrounding area settled by Dutch farmers in the late 19th century. Prior to its annexation to Chicago in 1891, the Village of Fernwood created a pleasure drive between South 95th and 103rd Streets at South Eggleston Avenue. Known as Fernwood Parkway, for years this narrow strip was the neighborhood's only parkland. In the early 1900s, residents were impressed with the superb nearby parks created by the South Park Commission. Fernwood residents lobbied the commission to extend its boundaries into their neighborhood, but their effort failed. Finally, in 1908, the Fernwood and Washington Heights Improvement Association successfully petitioned the county to form the Fernwood Park District. The new park district acquired a 12-acre farm with orchards, barns, and outbuildings in 1908. John Algots, the City of Chicago's Superintendent of Parks, created a park plan, transforming the property into a landscape of lawn, trees, shrubs, and a wading pool. A house on the site was remodeled as a fieldhouse, and in 1912, a branch of the Chicago Public Library opened in one of its rooms. In 1919, the citizens of Fernwood donated a World War I veterans' monument. In 1926, the remaining park acreage was acquired and additional landscape improvements were made. In 1934, Fernwood Park became part of the Chicago Park District’s portfolio when the city's 22 independent park commissions were consolidated into the Chicago Park District. A few years later, the newly-formed park district remodeled Fernwood Park's fieldhouse. Despite this, demands for additional interior space continued. In the mid-1980s, the original building was replaced with a modern fieldhouse, which received a natatorium and swimming pool addition in 1996.