Moran (Terrance) Park

In 1926, the City of Chicago began creating a small municipal playground in Englewood, a diverse community of wealthy and working-class residents that included one of the City's oldest African-American neighborhoods. The City soon improved the long, rectangular property, planting trees, shrubs, and lawn areas at the extreme ends, and installing a playing field, playground equipment, and a recreation building in the center of the park. In 1957, the City turned Moran Park over to the Chicago Park District along with more than 200 other properties pursuant to the Chicago Park and City Exchange of Functions Act. Re-planting the landscape and adding basketball courts, new playground equipment, and a spray pool in the 1960s, the Park District made further improvements in the early 1990s.

The site was named for Terrance F. Moran, alderman of the 16th ward from 1923 to 1937. (At the time, the City regularly named parks for standing aldermen of the wards in which the sites were located.) Moran served as Commissioner of the Department of Steam Boilers, Unfired Pressure Vessels, and Cooling Plants from 1943 until his death in 1958.