Providing 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, which extends to the city limits, the Illinois' border with Indiana.

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.

[3][4] The junction of the Illinois–Indiana border with the shoreline of Lake Michigan stands close to the southern tip of Calumet Park.

Some feet offshore from the park's beaches, the boundary line separating the jurisdictions of the two states continues northward into the lake.