Rosenblum (J. Leslie) Park

Rosenblum Park was one of many parks created as part of a ten-year plan to provide additional recreational space for post-World War II Chicago. For the well-established South Shore neighborhood, the Park District chose a three-block site bisected by a railroad right-of-way and occupied by a coal company, a gas station, a ball field, and a number of homes. The process of land acquisition of the park site began in 1946 and proved somewhat challenging but was completed in 1955. Demolition began the same year. Though the rail line still divided the property in two, the City agreed to vacate South Bennett and South Euclid Streets, which had further carved up the parkland. The Park District soon added a small recreational building and tennis and shuffleboard courts to supplement the existing softball field, and planted numerous red oaks and other new trees.  In 1965, the Park District transferred a small portion of its land to the Board of Education for an addition to South Shore High School.  In 2011, the Park District and the Board of Education entered into an Intergovernmental Agreement for the purpose of exchanging some land, demolishing the small fieldhouse and for park use of some space in the new South Shore International College Prep High School.

During its early years, the park was known as South Shore Park for the surrounding community. In 1965, however, the Park District renamed the site Rosenblum Park in honor of J. Leslie Rosenblum, a long-time South Shore resident. Rosenblum, a local pharmacist, was an active participant in the South Shore Chamber of Commerce and the area Lions Club. A strong supporter of the Neighborhood Boys' Club, he left his estate to the organization upon his death.