Touhy Park
Chicago, IL 60626
Located in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood between Clark Street and Paulina Street, Touhy Park covers 6.35 acres, with two softball fields, two tennis courts, and two playgrounds. A small field house allows children to participate in a number of activities.
Touhy Park opened on November 22, 1955.
Weekly programming focuses on early childhood recreation (18 months-5 years) during the morning hours. Nature-based programs such as the children's harvest garden are popular at the park. Those with a green thumb are invited to come out to the park and get involved in the community garden.
The Touhy Park Advisory Council, is made up of local neighborhood residents and meets regularly to discuss maintenance, programming and events at the 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 undeveloped areas which were starting to boom and neighborhoods with few existing parks.
May 14, 1946, the area that would become Touhy Park was opened as Sherwin Park.
In 1948, the district acquired 6.35 acres in Rogers Park, which was among the city's neighborhoods most in need of open space and recreational facilities. Due to the flurry of new construction at the time, Touhy Park was not completed until 1954. In the 1960s, the Park District built an addition converting the original comfort station into a field house. In 1990, separate soft surface playgrounds for older children and tots were added.
The park and nearby Touhy Avenue pay tribute to Captain Patrick Leonard Touhy (1839-1911) one of the founders of the Village of Rogers Park. An Irish immigrant who ran a grocery store in Chicago, Touhy married Catherine Rogers, daughter of the area's first white settler, Philip McGregor Rogers, in 1865. Several years later, when Catherine inherited hundreds of acres of land, Touhy began developing Rogers Park. Along with a group of other early settlers, he soon established the Rogers Park Building and Land Company. Formally incorporated as a Village in 1878, Rogers Park was annexed to Chicago in 1893, and is now among the city's most diverse neighborhoods.
Photos
RPWRHS photo C035T-001 shows Touhy Park, 7348 N. Paulina Street, August 29, 1946.
RPWRHS photo C035T-002 shows Touhy Park, 7348 N. Paulina Street, August 29, 1946.
RPWRHS photo C035T-003 shows Touhy Park, 7348 N. Paulina Street, Paulina Street looking north toward Jarvis Avenue, September 18, 1950.
RPWRHS photo C035T-004 shows Touhy Park, 7348 N. Paulina Street, Paulina Street looking northeast toward Jarvis Avenue, November 19, 1951.
RPWRHS photo C035T-005 shows Touhy Park, 7348 N. Paulina Street, tennis courts, Chase Avenue and Clark Street northeast corner, October 6, 1952.
RPWRHS photo C035T-006 shows Touhy Park, 7348 N. Paulina Street, Clark Street looking south toward Chase Avenue, October 26, 1951.
RPWRHS photo C035T-007 shows Touhy Park, 7348 N. Paulina Street, playground, September 18, 1950.
RPWRHS photo C035T-008 shows Touhy Park, 7348 N. Paulina Street, Paulina Street looking north toward Jarvis Avenue, May 1, 1952.
RPWRHS photo C035T-009 shows Touhy Park, 7348 N. Paulina Street, playground construction - Paulina Street looking west, June 26, 1951.
RPWRHS photo C035T-010 shows Touhy Park, 7348 N. Paulina Street, Alley bordering northside, looking east toward Paulina Street, November 9, 1954.
RPWRHS photo G001-PC385 shows Coast Guard Station and Birchwood Country Club, circa 1900. Now Leone Beach field house. No date given.
RPWRHS photo G001-PC2237 shows Touhy Park, 7348 N. Paulina Street, Beach looking south from Touhy Avenue. No date given.
RPWRHS photo S013-0814 shows Touhy Park, 7348 N. Paulina Street, field house door, March 1978.
