Portage Park (Chicago)
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Portage Park
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Flagstone gate at the southwestern entrance into Portage Park at the intersection of Irving Park Rd. and Central Ave
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| Location | 4100 N. Long Ave., Chicago, Illinois |
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| Coordinates | 41°57′18″N 87°45′52″W / 41.95500°N 87.76444°WCoordinates: 41°57′18″N 87°45′52″W / 41.95500°N 87.76444°W |
| Built | 1913 |
| NRHP reference # | 95000484 |
| Added to NRHP | 1995 |
Portage Park is a 36-acre (15 ha) park in the Portage Park community area of Chicago, Illinois on the National Register of Historic Places. The park stretches from Irving Park Road on the south to Berteau Avenue between Central and Long Avenues. The largest public park on Chicago's Northwest Side, it has many recreational facilities including six tennis courts, two playgrounds, a slab for in-line skating, a bike path, a nature walk, five baseball fields, two combination football/soccer fields and two fieldhouses— one housing a gymnasium and the other a cultural arts building. The park also has an Olympic-size pool featuring a large deck for sunning, misting sprays, as well as an interactive water play area with slide and diving boards in addition to a smaller heated pool. Plans are currently underway for the development of a new, 6,500-square-foot (600 m2) senior center at Portage Park.
Portage Park was not only the site that gave the area its name, it created the neighborhood by bringing together what had been several distinct communities that were populated by a slew of diverse ethnicities. The park came into being in 1913 when area residents formed an independent park board called the Old Portage Park District. The name of the new park district is a reference to the route that ran along what is today Irving Park Road that had once been used by Native Americans and fur traders to portage their canoes between the Des Plaines and Chicago Rivers.
The original plan for Portage Park was drawn up by American Park Builders Company who were also responsible for the initial construction that took place between 1913 and 1917. The park design included a naturalistic swimming lagoon, which opened to the public in July, 1916. A fieldhouse and gymnasium were added in the 1920s, designed by Clarence Hatzfeld, whose architectural firm of Hatzfeld and Knox would later design many of the Prairie and Craftsman-style bungalows in the nearby Villa District by historic St Wenceslaus Church. Portage Park quickly became the center of the community, providing athletics and team sports, cultural and club activities, festivities and special events for residents of Chicago's Northwest Side.
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