Douglass Park

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.

The park was named for Illinois politician and presidential candidate Stephen A. Douglas for over 151 years.
In 2020 the park was renamed for the abolitionist Frederick Douglass and his wife Anna Murray Douglass .
This stone bridge pictured in front of the old Greenhouse is one of the few remnants of Jenney's original park designs.
This 1916 photo depicts the outdoor gymnasium.