Marquette Park (Chicago)
Marquette Park, the largest park on the southwest side of Chicago, Illinois at 323 acres (1.31 km2), is located at 41°46′05″N 87°42′10″W / 41.767951°N 87.70287°WCoordinates: 41°46′05″N 87°42′10″W / 41.767951°N 87.70287°W in the city's Chicago Lawn neighborhood. The park is named for Father Jacques Marquette (1637–1675).
Marquette Park is part of a system of 14 parks designed in 1903 by the Olmsted Brothers. At 323 acres (1.31 km2) in size, it is the largest of the revolutionary neighborhood parks created by the South Park Commission in the early 20th century. The Superintendent at the time, J. Frank Foster, envisioned the "new parks as beautifully landscaped 'breathing spaces' that would provide educational and social services to the city's congested immigrant neighborhoods." "Social reformers launched a playground movement for the creation of additional parks." In 1899 and 1903 the state legislature authorized the three park commissions: Lincoln Park Commission; West Park Commission; and the South Park Commission; to acquire property for new parks. "The South Park Commission opened a system of 10 innovative neighborhood parks in 1905, which soon inspired similar parks in the West and Lincoln Park systems and in other cities across the United States."
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