Established in 1869 and initially named South Park,[1] its 173 acres (0.70 km2) are in the North Lawndale community area with an official address of 1401 S. Sacramento Drive.

[1] 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.

Inflated construction costs and post Great Chicago Fire tax collection difficulties resulted in phased projects.

[5] 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.

[5] By the time Jensen designed the garden, Ogden Avenue, a diagonal roadway with a major streetcar thoroughfare that would later become part of Route 66, had already been constructed.

[5] Jensen's solution was a long axial garden on the southeast side of the intersection, providing a buffer between Ogden Avenue and playing fields to the south.

It currently houses a miniature golf course, five playgrounds, an outdoor swimming pool, soccer fields, basketball courts, and an oval running track.

[12] The statue of Czech patriot, Karel Havlíček Borovský, by Joseph Strachovsky was moved to Solidarity Drive on today's Museum Campus in the vicinity of the Adler Planetarium in 1981.