Jefferson Park is a park in the Jefferson Park community area of

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

History

Thomas Jefferson Memorial Park is named in honor of the drafter of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

. The park was long referred to as simply Jefferson Park until the park received the memorial park designation in 1999 to distinguish it from a second park of the same name. This Jefferson Park was the creation of the Jefferson Park District, one of 22 park commissions consolidated into the

Chicago Park District The Chicago Park District is one of the oldest and the largest park districts in the United States. As of 2016, there are over 600 parks included in the Chicago Park District as well as 27 beaches, 10 boat docking harbors, two botanic conservat ...

in 1934. The Jefferson Park District was established in 1920 to provide neighborhood parks for the rapidly developing northwest side of Chicago. Located on the site of the former Esdohr farm, land acquisition for the park began in 1921 and continued through 1929 when most of the park had been landscaped. In 1930, the park district constructed an athletic field and a fieldhouse designed by

Clarence Hatzfeld Clarence Hatzfeld (1873–1943) was a prolific Chicago architect who designed residences, park field houses, Masonic temples, banks and other commercial buildings in the Arts and Crafts movement, Craftsman, Prairie School, Prairie, and Architectura ...

whose architectural firm of Hatzfeld and Knox would later design many of the

Prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

and

Craftsman-style American Craftsman is an American domestic architectural style, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, which included interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts, beginning in the last years of the 19th century. Its i ...

bungalows A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is typically single or one and a half storey, if a smaller upper storey exists it is frequently set in the roof and windows that come out from the roof, and may be surrounded by wide verandas. Th ...

in the nearby Villa District by historic St. Wenceslaus Church. The brick fieldhouse is graced with several historic paintings, including an anonymous portrait of

, a depiction of a

Viking ship Viking ships were marine vessels of unique structure, used in Scandinavia throughout the Middle Ages. The boat-types were quite varied, depending on what the ship was intended for, but they were generally characterized as being slender and flexi ...

replica by artist

Emil Biorn Emil Christensen Biorn (June 7, 1864 – July 30, 1935) was a Norwegian-born American sculptor, painter, and composer. Background Emil Biorn was born in Oslo, Christiania, Norway, the son of Christian Biørn from Lier, Norway, Lier and his wife ...

, and '' Columbus Sighting Land'' by L. Caracciolo.

References

External links

Official Jefferson Park Historical Society websiteChicagoparkdistrict.com: Jefferson Park
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jefferson Park (Chicago Park) North Side, Chicago Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in Chicago 1921 establishments in Illinois