Stars & Stripes Park

In 1970, the Chicago Park District began creating a 1.7-acre park in the Garfield Ridge community, then experiencing tremendous population growth and a shortage of recreational facilities. Purchasing the property using U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant funds, the park district improved the site in 1973, constructing a playground, a spray pool, a basketball court, and a baseball field. Since 1984, a mobile trailer/fieldhouse has provided space for indoor activities. Several years later, a soft surface playground replaced the original one. In 1976, the park district officially designated the site Stars & Stripes Park. The patriotic name was selected through a Bicentennial Committee contest conducted in the surrounding 23rd Ward. The name makes reference to the American flag, with its red and white stripes and white stars on a field of blue. Each of the stripes represents one of the original thirteen colonies, while the stars signify the nation's fifty states.