Rutherford Sayre Park

Rutherford Sayre Park was created from three separate parks, lying adjacent to the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad tracks on the City's northwest side, had long been treated as one by area residents. All three were set aside as parkland just before World War I and came under the control of the Chicago Park District. The park properties were donated by two local families, the Sayres and Rutherfords, who had farmed and later subdivided the surrounding area. The western portions of the parkland had been part of the Sayre homestead, purchased by William E. Sayre in the early 1830s. Thomas A. Rutherford, the area's first postmaster, donated the eastern section, at the southwest corner of Belden and Oak Park Avenues.  In 1916, the Northwest Park District began to improve the area north of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul tracks, erecting a fieldhouse with an assembly hall and a gymnasium. Per a stipulation in the Rutherford deed, the fieldhouse originally included a bowling alley as well, an unusual feature for a Chicago park fieldhouse. In the 1920s, the Chicago Landscape Company designed a spray pool for the park.  The park became part of the Chicago Park District’s portfolio when the Northwest Park District and 21 other park districts were consolidated into the Chicago Park District in 1934.  The Chicago Park District acquired ownership of additional park land from City of Chicago in 1957 pursuant to the Chicago Park and City Exchange of Functions Act.  In mid-1999, the Chicago Park District combined these three of adjacent parks (Rutherford, Sayre, and Rutherford Sayre) to form Rutherford Sayre Park.