Gross Park

Gross (Theodore) Park

Description

Gross Park is 1.56 acres and it is located in the Lincoln Square neighborhood. It features four basketball standards, a junior soccer field, and an ADA accessible soft surface playground.

The staff offers soccer and basketball instructional programs, touch football, plus a soccer league for youth. In the winter we offer a drop-in afterschool program and Kiddie Kollege for the little ones. Once summer comes around we offer our popular Play Camp for the kiddos! We hope to see you at the Park.

History

In 1898, the City of Chicago purchased nearly an acre-and-a-half of property in the Lincoln Square community for use by the Department of Sewers. Fifty years later, the Bureau of Parks and Recreation established a park at the site. Initially known as Washtenaw Playlot and later Lawrence Playlot for the adjacent streets, the park was well-equipped with playground equipment, a spray pool, a sand box, a small brick recreation building, and a playfield that could be flooded for ice skating in winter.

In 1952, the city council renamed the site in honor of Theodore A. Gross, who developed this park and countless others during his 44 years as the City's Superintendent of Playgrounds. The Chicago Park District began leasing Gross Park from the City in 1960. After making improvements in the late 1970s, the Park District rehabilitated Gross Park in 1990, and updated the recreation building the following year.