Rutherford Sayre Park (Chicago)

In mid 1999 the Chicago Park District combined three of its parks Rutherford Sayre and Rutherford Sayre to form Rutherford Sayre Park The three separate parks lying adjacent to the Chicago Milwaukee and St Paul Railroad tracks on the city s northwest side had long been treated as one by area residents All three were set aside as parkland just before World War I and came under the control of the Chicago Park District in 1959 The park properties were donated by two local families the Sayres and Rutherfords who had farmed and later subdivided the surrounding area The western portions of the parkland had been part of the Sayre homestead purchased by William E Sayre 1813 in the early 1830s Thomas A Rutherford 1838 the area s first postmaster donated the eastern section at the southwest corner of Belden and Oak Park Avenues In 1916 the Northwest Park District began to improve the area north of the Chicago Milwaukee and St Paul tracks erecting a fieldhouse with an assembly hall and a gymnasium Per a stipulation in the Rutherford deed the fieldhouse originally included a bowling alley as well an unusual feature for a Chicago park fieldhouse In the 1920s the Chicago Landscape Company designed a spray pool for the park