Field (Eugene) Park

Eugene Field Park was created by the Albany Park District, an independent park board formed in 1917 to provide recreational facilities and enhance the Chicago River's banks in the rapidly-developing North Park and Albany Park communities. In 1923, the Albany Park District began purchasing nearly ten acres of riverside land in the center of its territory. Although land acquisition took a full decade, landscape architect Henry J. Stockman soon prepared a plan that took full advantage of the picturesque river bank site, and improvements began in 1925. In 1928, Clarence Hatzfeld, a member of the park board and architect of many northwest side recreational, commercial, and residential buildings, designed a Tudor Revival-style fieldhouse for the park. A stone grotto and fountain originally graced the front of the fieldhouse. Inside, a Federal Works Progress Administration artist created a mural entitled "The Participation of Youth in the Realm of the Arts."  

The Albany Park Commissioners acquired land for Field Park from 1923-1933.  In 1934, the financial stresses of the Great Depression prompted consolidation of the city's 22 independent park boards, including the Albany Park District, into the unified Chicago Park District. By 1938, Eugene Field Park had a playground, a wading pool, tennis courts, and a lovely wooded picnic area. A decade later, the Park District expanded the site by more than two acres, improving the new property with baseball and football fields. In 1980, the Park District began leasing additional city land along the riverbank.  The Chicago Park District acquired more land from 1946-49.  In 2002, the District acquired additional property for for the park.  The most recent expansion of the park was in 2015. 

The park honors writer and poet Eugene Field (1850-1895), a nationally-renowned children's author. Among Field's best known works are "Little Boy Blue," "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod," and the "Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat." Born in St. Louis, Field worked for a number of western and midwestern newspapers before being recruited by the Chicago Daily News to write a humor column in 1883. Field made his home on Chicago's north side.