Calumet Park Explained

Calumet Park
Designated Other1 Name:Chicago Landmark
Designated Other1 Abbr:CL
Designated Other1 Color:
  1. aaccff
Designated Other1 Link:Chicago Landmark
Map Width:235
Coordinates:41.7179°N -87.5294°W
Location:9801 South Avenue G Chicago, Illinois
Built:1905, 1924
Added:August 21, 2003
Designated Other1 Date:October 4, 2006
Refnum:03000788
Designated Other1 Num Position:both
Designated Other2 Num Position:both
Designated Other3 Num Position:both
Mpsub:Chicago Park District MPS

Calumet Park is a 198-acre (79-hectare) urban park in Chicago, Illinois. Providing access to Lake Michigan from the East Side neighborhood on the city's Southeast Side, the park contains approximately 0.9 miles (1.5 km) of lake frontage from 95th Street to 102nd Street, which extends to the city limits, the Illinois' border with Indiana. The park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[1]

History

Calumet Park is named after the Calumet River and the Calumet Region of southeast Chicago and northwestern Indiana drained by the river. Planning for Calumet Park began in 1904 with the initial acquisition of 40acres of land. The Olmsted Brothers, a noted firm of urban landscape architects, drew up initial plans for landscaping the proposed new park; however, as a result of the swelling population of the East Side and a consensus that the original plans were inadequate, further land acquisitions were made, the Olmstead plans were revised, and facilities were built.

The original park opened in 1905, but was later enlarged; a fieldhouse was erected in 1924 at 98th Street and Avenue G. In the 1930s, Calumet Park attained its current size of 198acres. There are lakefront beaches at 96th, 98th, and 99th Streets.[1] What is planned to be a nearly 60 mile biking and hiking trail around the southern end of Lake Michigan to New Buffalo, Michigan starts in the park -- as of 2024 about 25 miles of the Marquette Greenway have been completed in various sections.[2]

The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in August 2003. On October 4, 2006, the fieldhouse became a Chicago Landmark.[3]

State line

The junction of the Illinois–Indiana border with the shoreline of Lake Michigan stands close to the southern tip of Calumet Park. Some feet offshore from the park's beaches, the boundary line separating the jurisdictions of the two states continues northward into the lake.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Calumet Park . . 2024-05-23 .
  2. News: Frieschstat . Sarah . 2024-03-25 . New piece of pedestrian greenway from Chicago’s East Side set to be built in Michigan . Chicago Tribune . 2024-04-03 . en-US.
  3. Web site: Calumet Park Fieldhouse. City of Chicago Dept. of Pl. and Devpmt., Landmarks Div.. 2006. 2007-08-04.