Calumet Park

For the Illinois municipality, see Calumet Park, Illinois.

Calumet Park
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Chicago Landmark
Calumet Park Fieldhouse
Location	9801 South Avenue G Chicago, Illinois
Coordinates	41.7179°N 87.5294°W / 41.7179; -87.5294
Built	1905, 1924
MPS	Chicago Park District MPS
NRHP reference No.	03000788
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	August 21, 2003
Designated CL	October 4, 2006

Calumet Park is a 198-acre (79-hectare) park in Chicago, Illinois. It provides 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. The park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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 40 acres (160,000 m²) 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 198 acres (0.80 km²). There are lakefront beaches at 96th, 98th, and 99th Streets.

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

State line

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