Russell (Martin) Square Park

The South Park District acquired land for Russell Square Park from 1903 until 1909.  The visionary South Park Commission Superintendent J. Frank Foster conceived Russell Square along with nine other revolutionary parks that opened to the public in 1905. These innovative parks provided social services as well as breathing spaces to overcrowded tenement neighborhoods on Chicago's south side. In addition to year-round recreational facilities and social activities, the new parks offered English lessons and other educational programs, the earliest branches of the Chicago Public Library, inexpensive hot meals, free public bathing facilities, and other health services. The ten parks, which quickly proved to be nationally influential, included Russell, Mark White, Davis, Armour, and Cornell Squares, and Bessemer, Ogden, Sherman, Palmer, and Hamilton Parks. Although the entire system was originally designed by the Olmsted Brothers landscape architects and Daniel H. Burnham & Co. architects, Russell Square has undergone many changes.  In 1934, Russell Square Park became part of the Chicago Park District’s portfolio when the South Park District and 21 other park districts were consolidated.  The fieldhouse designed by Chicago Park District architects replaced the original building in 1967.

The park pays tribute to Martin J. Russell (1845-1900), an accomplished native Chicagoan. After serving as Lieutenant in the Union Army during the Civil War, Russell began a career in journalism. In 1874, he began serving on the Board of Education, and two years later, he was elected Town Clerk. In 1880, he was appointed to the Board of the South Park Commission. He continued serving on the board until 1894, when President Cleveland appointed him Collector of Customs for the port of Chicago. Russell resigned from the collectorship in 1897 and continued in his journalistic career.