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31-573: Douglass Park (formerly Douglas Park) is a part of the Chicago Park District on the West Side of Chicago , Illinois . Established in 1869 and initially named South Park, its 173 acres (0.70 km) are in the North Lawndale community area with an official address of 1401 S. Sacramento Drive. Opened in 1871, the park was originally named for U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas . In 2020,

62-568: A board of seven (7) non-salaried Commissioners who are appointed by the Mayor of the City of Chicago with the approval of the Chicago City Council. In the 1860s, Chicago already had about 40 small parks, but no central plan, and it fell far short when compared to other major cities in the country. Lincoln Park was Chicago's first large park, created in 1860. Dr. John H. Rauch MD , who was a member of

93-470: A busy intersection at the junction of Ogden and Sacramento Avenues. Jensen's solution was a long axial garden on the southeast side of the intersection, providing a buffer between Ogden Avenue and playing fields to the south. Jensen demolished the conservatories in each of the West Park System parks in favor of one grand conservatory at Garfield Park. At the entrance to the garden, the area closest to

124-499: A central location for recreation since it was first built. It currently houses a miniature golf course, five playgrounds, an outdoor swimming pool, soccer fields, basketball courts, and an oval running track. The park also retains its original lagoon , a wide variety of trees, and the original Jenney-designed stone bridge. The greenhouse that attracted visitors from throughout the city was torn down in 1905. The statue of Czech patriot, Karel Havlíček Borovský , by Joseph Strachovsky

155-428: A pitch is most commonly composed of sod (grass) , but may also be artificial turf , sand , clay , gravel , concrete , or other materials. A playing field on ice may be referred to as a rink , for example an ice hockey rink , although rink may also refer to the entire building or, in the sport of curling , to either the building or a particular team. In the sport of cricket , the cricket pitch refers not to

186-460: Is field of play , although this is not regularly used by those outside refereeing/umpiring circles. The field of play generally includes out-of-bounds areas that a player is likely to enter while playing a match, such as the area beyond the touchlines in association football and rugby or the sidelines in American and Canadian football , or the " foul territory " in baseball . The surface of

217-411: Is one of the names for a multi-sport athletic space, typically constructed outdoors, where such games as basketball , volleyball , paddle tennis and other racquet sports, and up to a dozen more games and activities can be played. They are usually smaller than a regulation tennis (120' x 60')or basketball (84'x50')court, although there is no set dimensions or size for a game court. The game-court concept

248-549: Is the largest municipal lifeguard force in the world and is regularly observed by representatives from Japan, Australia, Ireland, Germany, California, Florida and other locales. The Service also covers more waterfront than any other individual lifeguard force in the world; Chicago beaches cover over 26 miles of the lakefront. The 58,100-square-foot (5,400 m ) headquarters is in Park 596 in Brighton Park . Its previous headquarters

279-728: The Chicago Board of Health and later a president of the Illinois State Board of Health , played a key role in establishing Lincoln Park by persuading city officials to close several festering cemeteries filled with shallow graves of victims of infectious epidemics. Rauch next formulated a central plan for parks across the entire city, noting that they were "the lungs of the city", and pointing out that Chicago's parks were inferior to those in New York's Central Park , Baltimore's Druid Hill Park , and Philadelphia's Fairmount Park . His influence

310-707: The Lincoln Park Conservatory . The Chicago Park District's seven Commissioners govern the district. Under the Chicago Park District code, the Commissioners have a fiduciary duty to act, vote on all matters, and govern the Park District in the best interest of the Park District. The Commissioners appoint the General Superintendent & Chief Executive Officer. On May 11, 2022, Rosa Escareño

341-561: The commissioners named the southernmost park in honor of Stephen A. Douglas (1813–1861). Best remembered for his pre- Civil War presidential defeat by Abraham Lincoln despite superb oratorical skills, Douglas was a United States Senator who helped bring the Illinois Central Railroad to Chicago. In 1871, designer William Le Baron Jenney completed plans for the entire West Park System which included Douglas, Garfield , and Humboldt parks. Jenney's engineering expertise

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372-794: The West Park Commission constructed a fieldhouse in Douglas Park. The structure was designed by architects Michaelsen and Rognstad, who were also responsible for other notable buildings including the Garfield Park Gold Dome Building, the Humboldt and LaFolette Park Fieldhouses, and the On Leong Merchants Association Building in Chinatown . In 1934, Douglas Park became part of the Chicago Park District , when

403-413: The busy roadway intersection, Jensen placed a monumental garden shelter, known as Flower Hall, and a formal reflecting pool . The designer of the structure is unknown, however, it was possibly Jensen himself, or his friend, prairie school architect Hugh Garden. East of the building, the garden becomes more naturalistic. Jensen included perennial beds, a lily pool, and unique prairie-style benches. In 1928,

434-483: The city limits. A number of these are tourist destinations, most notably Lincoln Park , Chicago's largest park which has over 20 million visitors each year, second only to Central Park in New York City . With 10 lakefront harbors located within a number of parks along the lakefront, the Chicago Park District is also the nation's largest municipal harbor system. A number of Chicago Park District parks are located in

465-499: The city's 22 independent park commissions merged into a single citywide agency. In 2017, students launched a petition to rename the park for Frederick Douglass and his wife, and presented a proposal to the park district board in 2019. In 2020, noting it had never held a vote to change the name of any park from a historical person in its history, the Chicago Park District Board approved the change. The park has served as

496-612: The city, and created a lakefront concert venue on Northerly Island on the site of the former Meigs Field airport. In 2014, the district won the National Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Parks and Recreation . Park District land hosts 11 museums in locations around the city. They are: In addition, the district's parks host the free admission Lincoln Park zoological park, the Garfield Park Conservatory , and

527-500: The design. The surface of a game court—as opposed to simply playing on concrete or asphalt—is designed for safe play and to reduce injury. Many people have started to use suspended athletic courts to cover old athletic courts like tennis courts and basketball courts. The surface should provide appropriate traction for various types of sports and activities, as well as shock or force reduction to minimize overuse and stress injuries. Game courts are typically custom-designed to

558-498: The entire field of play , but to the section of the field on which batting and bowling take place in the centre of the field. The pitch is prepared differently from the rest of the field, to provide a harder surface for bowling. A pitch is often a regulation space, as in an association football pitch . The term level playing field is also used metaphorically to mean fairness in non-sporting human activities such as business where there are notional winners and losers. Game court

589-444: The interests of the family or organization, and are versatile in enabling a wide variety of sports to be played in a relatively small space. Some activities played on a game court are enjoyable modifications of other sports (such as short-court tennis) that allow for similar skills to be developed as the 'regulation' game, but on a reduced-scale court size. A typical game court of 50 by 30 feet (15.2 m × 9.1 m) might include

620-579: The late 1960s, the district lent its support for a Special Olympics for developmental challenged children. The Park District co-sponsored the first Special Olympics at Soldier Field in 1968. In the past several years, the Park District has initiated a program of renovating and beautifying existing parks and playgrounds, as well as initiating the building of a number of new parks, including Ping Tom Memorial Park , Ellis Park , DuSable Park , Maggie Daley Park and others. The Chicago Park District has also expanded programming in neighborhood parks throughout

651-416: The park by Oscar DuBuis in the 1880s. Between 1886 and 1888 Douglas Park, like the other West Park System parks, replaced its greenhouse with a conservatory. In 1895, members of several German turners' clubs petitioned for an outdoor gymnasium , and the following year one of Chicago's first public facilities was constructed with an outdoor gymnasium (pictured right), swimming pool , and natatorium . By

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682-495: The park was renamed Douglass (Frederick and Anna) Park, for abolitionist Frederick Douglass and his wife Anna Murray Douglass . Riot Fest is held annually each summer at Douglass Park, causing controversy among some neighborhood residents. In 1869, the Illinois state legislature established the West Park Commission, which was responsible for three large parks and interlinking boulevards . Later that year, on November 4, 1869,

713-440: The parks and added new features. Among Jensen's improvements were a semi-circular entryway at Marshall Boulevard, and a formal garden at the corner of Ogden Avenue and Sacramento Drive. By the time Jensen designed the garden, Ogden Avenue, a diagonal roadway with a major streetcar thoroughfare that would later become part of Route 66 , had already been constructed. The road divided the park into two separate landscapes, creating

744-400: The turn of the century, the West Park Commission was riddled with political graft , and the three parks became dilapidated. As part of a reform effort in 1905, Jens Jensen was appointed as General Superintendent and Chief Landscape Architect for the entire West Park System. Jensen, now recognized as dean of the prairie style of landscape architecture , improved deteriorating sections of

775-402: The vicinity of or even adjacent to a number of Chicago Public Schools . This design was done in order to make it easier for public school students and faculty to incorporate school assignments or physical activities into the learning experience. Additionally, a number of Chicago Public Library locations are sited within Chicago Park District facilities. The Chicago Park District is governed by

806-476: Was appointed to the position. The Chicago Lifeguard Service, or the Chicago Park District Beaches and Pools Unit, employs over 1000 as aquatics staff during the summer and 300 year round to protect the lives of patrons. Lifeguards are stationed at 23 beaches on Lake Michigan plus one inland beach, as well as, 26 indoor and 51 outdoor pools at city parks and 15 pools in public schools. The Service

837-511: Was designed by Holabird & Root . Construction began in 1938 and ended in 1939. Playing field A pitch or a sports ground is an outdoor playing area for various sports . The term pitch is most commonly used in British English , while the comparable term in Australian , American and Canadian English is playing field or sports field . For most sports the official term

868-586: Was especially helpful for transforming Douglas Park's poor natural site into parkland. He had manure from the Union Stock Yards and sand added to the marshy site. This process brought the 173 acres (0.70 km) of land to grade level . In the center of the landscape, Jenney created a picturesque lake , and a small section of the park was formally opened in 1879. Inflated construction costs and post Great Chicago Fire tax collection difficulties resulted in phased projects. The first improvements were made to

899-700: Was key in setting up Chicago's modern park system. The current Chicago Park District was created in 1934 by the Illinois Legislature under the Park Consolidation Act (70 ILCS 1505 et seq). By provisions of that act, the Chicago Park District consolidated and superseded the then-existing 22 separate park districts in Chicago , the largest three of which were the Lincoln Park, West Park, and South Park Districts, all of which had been established in 1869. In

930-1022: Was moved to Solidarity Drive on today's Museum Campus in the vicinity of the Adler Planetarium in 1981. Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid included plans to host the Olympic cycling competitions in this park, including a velodrome and a BMX course. Beginning in 2015, the park is the new home of the Riot Fest . From 2018 to 2022, it was also the host of the Lyrical Lemonade hip-hop music festival. 41°52′N 87°42′W  /  41.86°N 87.70°W  / 41.86; -87.70 Chicago Park District The Chicago Park District oversees more than 600 parks with over 8,800 acres (3,600 ha) of municipal parkland as well as 27 beaches , 78 pools, 11 museums, two world-class conservatories, 16 historic lagoons and 10 bird and wildlife gardens that are found within

961-825: Was popularized by Sport Court in the 1970s, and some generic references are made to game courts as 'sport courts', although that is a trademark of Connor Sport Court International, LLC. Game courts are often found in residential backyards, giving families and children opportunities for healthy recreation close to home. Game courts are usually constructed using a rectangular sub-base made from concrete or asphalt, then covered with an open-grid modular polypropylene (or similar) sports surface to improve safety. Most feature athletic equipment such as basketball goals, net systems for racquet sports, volleyball and badminton, lights for nighttime play, fencing or ball containment netting, hockey/soccer goals, lines or markings for various sports, and practice or training components can also be incorporated into

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