Washington Park (community area), Chicago
Washington Park refers to a neighborhood and a park on the South Side of Chicago.
Washington Park is a 300 acre park that forms the eastern border of the Washington Park neighborhood and the western border of Hyde Park. It was laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted in the 1870's. Interesting sights are the DuSable Museum of African American History and its sculpture garden, the Lorado Taft sculpture Fountain of Time, and an architecturally distinctive National Guard regiment. The park also hosts many festivals in the summer, and has Chicago's best organized cricket league. In Native Son, Bigger Thomas drives the drunken Jan Erlone and Mary Dalton around Washington Park, as the two embrace.
historic townhouses in Washington Park
Washington Park is part of Chicago's boulevard system. From Washington Park, one can take the Midway east to Jackson Park, Garfield Boulevard west to Midway airport, Drexel boulevard north to the central city.
The neighborhood of Washington Park is west of the park itself. The area is extremely poor now, and has many vacant lots, but was once relatively well-off. The area rapidly changed from white to black in the 1920's. The Studs Lonigan trilogy is set here.