Lindblom Park

History:

Soon after World War II, the Chicago Park District began a major initiative to create new parks for the first time in many years. This Ten Year Plan identified 43 sites in neighborhoods with few recreational facilities and in undeveloped areas which were starting to boom. In 1949, the effort's fourth year, the park district acquired a 17-acre property in the under-served West Englewood neighborhood. Improved between 1950 and 1952, the new park included an athletic field, a children's playground, tennis and volley ball courts, and a small frame and sheet metal recreation building. Basketball courts were added in 1958. In 1983, the park district demolished the recreation building and replaced it with a modern fieldhouse, nearly identical with structures built the same year in Rowan and Fernwood Parks. Two years later, an outdoor swimming pool and a changing facility were constructed in the park. In the 1990s, the park district replanted Lindblom Park's landscape, built a soft surface playground, and installed flood lights around the basketball courts, allowing for night-time games. The park's name honors Chicago businessman and philanthropist Robert Lindblom (1844-1907). Having emigrated from Sweden at the age of 20, Lindblom settled in Chicago in 1877, and worked as a grain operator on the Board of Trade. He served on the organizing committee for the World's Columbian Exposition, raising a half-million dollars to help finance the fair which opened in Jackson Park in 1893. For helping the Swedish government with its fair exhibit, Lindblom was knighted by King Oscar. Linblom served on the Board of Education from 1893 to 1896.