Bessemer Park

Bessemer Park is a public park in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. Created in 1904, it was named for Henry Bessemer, the inventor of the eponymous steelmaking process.^[1] The name is appropriate, since Chicago's most productive steel mill, the U.S. Steel Southworks, was located just a mile away.

The park was created by the South Park Commission as part of a new neighborhood park system in Chicago. Living conditions for immigrants in search of the "American dream" had become intolerable because of overcrowding. Most people didn't own cars. Other parks were too far away. Park superintendent J. Frank Foster conceived a new type of parkland for population-dense areas—parks providing "breathing spaces" and a host of other amenities, from public bathing to organized recreation. The Olmsted Brothers and the architects Daniel H. Burnham and Co. were engaged to design the entire park system, including Bessemer Park.^[1]

Today Bessemer Park boasts a gated and beautifully landscaped nature garden planted with a wide variety of native flowering trees, shrubs and forbs.

References

↑ 1.0 1.1 "Bessemer Park". Parks & Facilities. Chicago Park District. Retrieved 4 October 2009.

Parks in Chicago

Abbott Park Ada Park Adams Park Jane Addams Park Almond Park Altgeld Park Amundsen Park Arcade Park Archer Park Armour Square Park Armstrong Park Arnita Young Boswell Park Arrigo Park Auburn Park Augusta Park Austin Park Avalon Park Avondale Park Bauler Park Bessemer Park Bell Park Berger Park Blackhawk Park Boyce Park Bosley Park Burnham Park Calumet Park Chopin Park Columbus Park Donovan Park Douglas Park DuSable Park Dunbar Park Dvorak Park Eckhart Park Ellis Park Fernwood Park Foster Park Fuller Park Gage Park Garfield Park Gompers Park Grant Park Hamilton Park Harrison Park Hayes Park Holstein Park Hoyne Park Humboldt Park Independence Park Indian Boundary Park Jackson Park Jefferson Park Jesse Owens Park Kelvyn Park Kenwood Community Park Kosciuszko Park Legion Park Lincoln Park Loyola Park Maggie Daley Park Marquette Park McGuane Park McKinley Park Midway Plaisance Millennium Park Mount Greenwood Park Mozart Park Nichols Park Northerly Island Park Ogden Park Olson Park and Waterfall Oscar O. D'Angelo Park Oz Park Palmer Park Peoples Park Ping Tom Memorial Park Piotrowski Park Portage Park Promontory Point Pulaski Park Revere Park River Park Rogers Park Rowan Park Riis Park Russell Square Park Shedd Park Sherman Park Skinner Park Smith Park South Shore Nature Reserve Stanton-Schiller Park Strohacker Park Union Park Vittum Park Warren Park Dinah Washington Park Harold Washington Park Washington Park Washington Square Park Welles Park Wicker Park Wildwood Park Wilson Park Winnemac Park

Beaches in Chicago

Coordinates: 41°43′57″N 87°33′25″W / 41.7325°N 87.5570°W / 41.7325; -87.5570