Trumbull Park

Trumbull Park occupies 18.52 acres on Chicago's south side, in the South Deering neighborhood once called Irondale. The South Park Commission began planning it in 1907 as one of four new neighborhood parks, and permanent improvements followed in 1915. The Olmsted Brothers prepared plans, but in-house staff designed the layout actually built: a depressed ball field on the north half, with a fieldhouse, playground, running track, swimming pool and service yard on the south. A formal promenade and concourse lined with ginkgo trees remain a defining feature. The cruciform Beaux Arts fieldhouse, built in 1915 from the same plans as the Grand Crossing Park fieldhouse, echoes the earlier Burnham-designed park buildings, though it has since been gunited and painted. A 1947 granite fountain memorializes local World War II veterans. The park is recognized as a representative, highly intact example of Chicago's South Park Commission neighborhood parks, which grew from settlement-house reform ideals.