Douglass Park Sign
Douglass Park Sign
Welcome to Douglass (Anna and Frederick) Park!
Welcome to Douglass (Anna and Frederick) Park!
Historic Flower Hall at Douglass Park
Historic Flower Hall at Douglass Park
Summer Camp fun at Douglass Park
Summer Camp fun at Douglass Park
Putting range at Douglass Park
Putting range at Douglass Park
The Sunshine Daydream Playground
The Sunshine Daydream Playground
A holiday dance performance at Douglass Park
A holiday dance performance at Douglass Park
Inside the historic fieldhouse!
Inside the historic fieldhouse!
Special Recreation theater class at Douglass Park
Special Recreation theater class at Douglass Park
Stunning natural areas at Douglass Park
Stunning natural areas at Douglass Park
Location:

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623

Supervisor: Angela Sallis
Phone Numbers: Main (773) 762-2842

 

Hours

Park Hours
Day Time slot Comment
Sunday: 6:00 am-11:00 pm
Monday: 6:00 am-11:00 pm
Tuesday: 6:00 am-11:00 pm
Wednesday: 6:00 am-11:00 pm
Thursday: 6:00 am-11:00 pm
Friday: 6:00 am-11:00 pm
Saturday: 6:00 am-11:00 pm
Fieldhouse Hours
Day Time slot Comment
Sunday Closed
Monday 9:00 am-8:00 pm
Tuesday 9:00 am-8:00 pm
Wednesday 9:00 am-8:00 pm
Thursday 9:00 am-8:00 pm
Friday 9:00 am-8:00 pm
Saturday 9:00 am-5:00 pm

Description

Located in the North Lawndale community and parts of Pilsen neighborhood, Douglass (Anna and Frederick) Park totals 161.85 acres. 

Douglass Park is a historic regional park that offers many recreational and cultural opportunities for park patrons. The fieldhouse features include two gymnasiums, an auditorium, a computer lab, a fitness center, a kitchen, a grand ballroom and meeting rooms.

Outdoors, the park offers tennis courts, a game day football stadium, an outdoor pool, water spray features, basketball courts, an artificial turf soccer field, a pavilion, baseball fields and a small golf putting range.

Douglass Park also offers three newly renovated playgrounds. In summer 2016, a playground on the west end of the park was renovated and renamed Sunshine Daydream Playground, in honor of a Grateful Dead song. This new playground offers an interactive water fountain and music-themed play equipment that is accessible for children of all ages and ability levels. 

Douglass Park has partnered with many community partners to add additional amenities for patrons. Through a collaboration with the Chicago Bulls Basketball organization, the park offers a computer learning lab to serve the children of the community. In partnership with Ravinia, the park hosts a series of summer concerts and the annual Junta Hispana festival in July.

Young park-goers can play seasonal sports at park facilities or take part in cultural programs, including dance, art, performing arts and theater. In the summer, youth attend day camp and specialty arts camps. Adults participate in a range of activities at Douglas Park, including working out at the fitness center or engaging in aerobics and conditioning classes. Families also participate in the monthly “Bring the Family to the Table” nutritional meal, a free program offered in partnership with the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

In addition to programs, Douglass Park hosts fun special events throughout the year for the whole family, such as dance and theater performances, Movies in the Park screenings and other Night Out in the Parks events. 

History

In 1869, the Illinois state legislature established the West Park Commission, which was responsible for three large parks and interlinking boulevards. Later that year, 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.

From 1870-1879 the West Park District acquired land for Douglas Park from multiple individuals and the City of 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 was especially helpful for transforming Douglas Park's poor natural site into parkland. He had sand and manure from the Chicago Stock Yards added to the marshy site.

In the center of the landscape, Jenney created a picturesque lake. A small section of the park was formally opened in 1879. In 1895, members of several German turners' clubs petitioned for an outdoor gymnasium in Douglas Park. The following year, this resulted in the construction of one of Chicago's first public facilities with outdoor gymnasium, swimming pool and natatorium.

By 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 the parks and added new features.

Among Jensen's improvements were a semi-circular entryway at Marshall Blvd., and a formal garden at the corner of Ogden Ave. and Sacremento Dr. By the time Jensen designed the garden, Ogden Avenue, a diagonal roadway with a major streetcar thoroughfare, had already been constructed. The road divided the park into two separate landscapes, creating a busy intersection at the juncture 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 Ave. and playfields to the south.

At the entrance to the garden, the area closest to 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, 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 Chinese Merchant's Association Building in Chinatown.

In 1934, Douglas Park became part of the Chicago Park District, when the City's 22 independent park commissions merged into a single citywide agency.

On September 9, 2020, the Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners voted to officially remove the name of Stephen Douglas from the park, and on November 18, 2020, the Board voted to officially name the park in honor of Anna and Frederick Douglass.  The community requested the park be renamed to honor two historical abolitionists, Anna Murray Douglass and Fredrick Douglass. 

In 1818, Frederick Douglass was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, of mixed race, into slavery on the eastern shore of Maryland.  After Douglass taught himself to read and write, he found work at the docks in Baltimore.  It was there he met a free black woman named Anna Murray.  She had been born free, to parents who were former slaves.  Ms. Murray worked as a laundress and a housekeeper, gaining independent financial security for herself.  She provided funds to Frederick, which he used to disguise himself as a sailor and escaped slavery.  Ms. Murray shortly followed Frederick to New York, where they married and established a household.  When they later settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and in an effort to hide his identity, he dropped his middle name, and they changed their last name to Douglass.  Throughout their 44-year marriage, Anna provided the support system for Frederick’s growing work as an orator and abolitionist, maintaining their household and raising their five children.   

Douglass began reading The Liberator, an abolitionist publication, and began attending abolitionist meetings. Thereafter, the Anti-Slavery Society hired Douglass as a paid lecturer.  This was his beginning as an orator; he would become one of the most famous orators of his time.  He focused on the abolishment of slavery, the promoting of the moral and intellectual improvement of colored people, and women’s rights. Frederick Douglass also wrote two autobiographies Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and My Bondage and My Freedom. 

Douglass knew that the Emancipation Proclamation was a revolutionary document. In 1865, Douglass attended Lincoln’s second Inaugural Speech, and often quoted from the speech.  Upon hearing of Lincoln’s death, Douglass was said to feel the death as both a personal and national calamity.

Advisory Council

Contact: Latasha Ajayi,   President
Meeting Details:

2nd Tuesday of every month at 6pm

Parking/Directions

For directions using public transportation visit www.transitchicago.com.

Map & Facilities

Douglass Playground - E

1400 S. California Ave.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Douglass Playground - W

1470 S. Albany Ave.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Douglass Clubrooms

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Douglass Playground- N

1820 S. Farrar Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Douglass Basketball Courts - Outdoor

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Douglass Football/Soccer Fields

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Douglass Baseball Fields

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Douglass Spray Pool

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Douglass Cultural Center/Fieldhouse

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Douglass Tennis Courts

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Douglass Fishing Area

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Douglass - Route 66 | Artwork

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Douglass Fitness Center

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Douglass Playground - Sunshine Daydream

1850 S. Albany Ave.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Douglass Golf Facility

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

:
312-907-7701

Douglass - You Are a Reflection of You | Artwork

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Douglass Gymnasium - Stage

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Ancient Protocol | Artwork

1401 S Sacramento Dr
Chicago , IL 60623
United States

:

Douglass Football/Soccer Field- Artificial Turf

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Douglass Playground - SE

1788 South California Avenue
Chicago, IL 60608
United States

:

Douglass - Big Al's Smoke Stack | Concession

1401 S. Sacramento Ave.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Douglass - Espinosa | Concession

1401 S. Sacramento
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

:
(773)663-1117

Douglass Flower Hall and Formal Gardens

1401 South Sacramento Drive
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Douglass Mosaic | Artwork

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Douglass Pool

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

:
(773)762-2842
Route 66 at Douglass (Anna & Frederick) Park
Douglass - Route 66 | Artwork

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Show on Map
default image
Douglass - Espinosa | Concession

1401 S. Sacramento
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

:
(773)663-1117
Show on Map
Sunshine Daydream Playground
Douglass Playground - Sunshine Daydream

1850 S. Albany Ave.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Show on Map
Douglass (Anna & Frederick) Park Clubrooms
Douglass Clubrooms

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Show on Map
Douglass (Anna & Frederick) Park Flower Hall
Douglass Flower Hall and Formal Gardens

1401 South Sacramento Drive
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Show on Map
You Are a Reflection of You at Douglass (Anna & Frederick) Park
Douglass - You Are a Reflection of You | Artwork

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Show on Map
default image
Douglass Basketball Courts - Outdoor

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Show on Map
Douglass (Anna & Frederick) Park Mosaic
Douglass Mosaic | Artwork

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Show on Map
Sculpture featuring over-sized metal dragonflies on a sculpted tree
Ancient Protocol | Artwork

1401 S Sacramento Dr
Chicago , IL 60623
United States

:
Show on Map
default image
Douglass Baseball Fields

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Show on Map
Douglass (Anna & Frederick) Park Pool
Douglass Pool

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

:
(773)762-2842
Show on Map
default image
Douglass Playground - SE

1788 South California Avenue
Chicago, IL 60608
United States

:
Show on Map
Douglass (Anna & Frederick) Park Cultural Center
Douglass Cultural Center/Fieldhouse

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Show on Map
Douglass (Anna & Frederick) Park Playground - E
Douglass Playground - E

1400 S. California Ave.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Show on Map
default image
Douglass Fishing Area

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Show on Map
Park No. 218 Playground - W
Douglass Playground - W

1470 S. Albany Ave.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Show on Map
default image
Douglass Fitness Center

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Show on Map
Douglass Playground- N

1820 S. Farrar Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Show on Map
Douglass Park Miniature Golf Course
Douglass Golf Facility

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

:
312-907-7701
Show on Map
default image
Douglass Football/Soccer Fields

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Show on Map
Douglass (Anna & Frederick) Park Auditorium
Douglass Gymnasium - Stage

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Show on Map
default image
Douglass Spray Pool

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Show on Map
default image
Douglass Football/Soccer Field- Artificial Turf

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Show on Map
default image
Douglass Tennis Courts

1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Show on Map
default image
Douglass - Big Al's Smoke Stack | Concession

1401 S. Sacramento Ave.
Chicago, IL 60623
United States

Show on Map