Indian Boundary Park

From HistoryWiki

2500 W. Lunt Avenue

Director: Phil Martini

website

See also: Indian Boundary Garden Club, Indian Boundary Park Fieldhouse, Indian Boundary Park Zoo, Indian Boundary Park Nature Play Center.

Application for inclusion on National Register of Historic Places

Indian Boundary Park is bounded by Estes Avenue on the North, Lunt Avenue on the South, Rockwell Street on the West and a property line which aligns with Artesian Avenue on the East.

Included in the 1992-1993 Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Tour, the 1999 Annual Fall House Tour, the 2010 Annual House Tour and the 2016 Annual House Tour.

Indian Boundary Park and Cultural Center was a featured location during openhousechicago 2011 and 2012.

In 1816,the United States negotiated a treaty with the Council of Three Fires, the United Tribes of Ojibwa, Ottawa and Potawatomi Indians. The purpose of the treaty was to establish a passage where white settlers could safely travel to the west, but by 1833, white settlement had become permanent and the Indian tribes were driven from the area. The northern edge of the treaty area was marked by the North Indian Boundary Line, now Rogers Avenue.

One hundred years later, in 1916, the Ridge Avenue Park District established Indian Boundary Park on land along the north end of the boundary area in still-undeveloped West Ridge. By 1922, the park had expanded to its current size of 13 acres, and residential development was beginning to take hold along its edges. Beginning in 1918 with landscape design by Richard F. Gloede, a series of improvements throughout the 1920s made the park an appealing attraction for new residents. Tennis courts were built in 1924, and the existing marshy pond was turned into a lagoon stocked with ducks and swans. A small zoo zoo was established, one of only two within the Chicago limits, and the park’s classic Tudor-Revival style Indian Boundary Park Fieldhouse was added in 1929.

In 1989, a large playground was added to the park and assembled with the help of West Ridge neighborhood residents. The building is designated a Chicago Park District Cultural Center, offering various art, dance and music programs for both children and adults, with some classes held on the building’s back porch, so that artists can use the park’s scenery as inspiration.

On May 20, 2012, disaster struck when an electrical fire started in a storage room in the Cultural Center attic, resulting in a collapsed roof, shattered windows, crumbling interior beams and a ten-foot high pile of debris in the center of the building’s Native-American motif auditorium. Fortunately, the Chicago Park District committed to restoration of the building to its pre-fire condition, salvaging architectural or ornamental features from the debris to aid the effort. The restored building reopened in 2014. For more details on the fire and the building restoration, see Indian Boundary Park Fieldhouse.

Photos

RPWRHS photo C035I-001 Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, Burr Tillstrom & unidentified girl with puppets, circa 1940.

RPWRHS photo C035I-002 Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, children's garden club - 10 kids, 1936.

RPWRHS photo C035I-003 Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, children's garden club - girls, 1936.

RPWRHS photo C035I-004 Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, children's garden club - 10 kids, 1936.

RPWRHS photo C035I-005 Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, parents & kids, 1935.

RPWRHS photo C035I-006 Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, tennis trophy awards, 1946.

RPWRHS photo C035I-007 Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, tennis practice, 1946.

RPWRHS photo C035I-008 Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, craft class - 11 women, circa 1940.

RPWRHS photo C035I-009 Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, Zoo wolf in cage - two kids, circa 1940.

RPWRHS photo L009-0165 shows Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, concert, August 4, 1982.

RPWRHS photo L009-0166 shows Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, concert, August 4, 1982.

RPWRHS photo L009-0167 shows Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, Henry Salita conducting concert, August 4, 1982.

RPWRHS photo L009-0213 shows Indian Boundary Garden Club, Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, - Planting, September 27, 2000.

RPWRHS photo L009-0235 shows Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, field house, September 28, 1988.

RPWRHS photo L009-0382 shows Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, Kids and Adults find fascination in Indian Boundary Park's monthly nature program, March 7, 1987.

RPWRHS photo L009-0386 shows Jake Lunn stacking garbage bags that were collected at Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, March 20, 1987.

RPWRHS photo L009-0436 shows Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, 4-H Club restoration, September 17, year unknown.

RPWRHS photo L009-0464 shows Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, playground fun, April 11, 1990.

RPWRHS photo L009-0495 shows Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, unidentified father and daughter playing, April 4, 1990.

RPWRHS photo R044-0111 shows Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue - aerial view, circa 1930.

RPWRHS photo S013-0163 shows Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, Playground, August 1989.

RPWRHS photo S013-0164 shows Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, Playground, August 1989.

RPWRHS photo S013-0236 shows Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, July 1989.

RPWRHS photo S013-1198 (no photo in record). was supposed to show Indian Boundary Park "A Day in the Park" sign. August 11, xxxx.

RPWRHS photo S013-1199 (no photo in record). was supposed to show Indian Boundary Park "A Day in the Park" bears. August 11, xxxx.

RPWRHS photo S013-1200 (no photo in record). was supposed to show Indian Boundary Park "A Day in the Park" three children. August 11, xxxx.

RPWRHS photo S013-1201 (no photo in record). was supposed to show Indian Boundary Park "A Day in the Park" two children with tennis rackets. August 11, xxxx.

RPWRHS photo S013-1202 (no photo in record). was supposed to show Indian Boundary Park "A Day in the Park" Homer Park Jazz Band. August 11, xxxx.

RPWRHS photo S013-1203 (no photo in record). was supposed to show Indian Boundary Park duck pond in snow.

RPWRHS photo S013-2140 Location marker for Philip McGregor Rogers's first home site. Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Avenue, September, 1984.

RPWRHS photo S013-2256 Philip Rogers Home Plaque in Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Morse Avenue, September, 1984.