Simons Park is a municipal park located at 1640 N. Drake Avenue in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

. It is administered by the Chicago Park District

Chicago Park District

The Chicago Park District is the oldest and largest park district in the U.S.A, with a $385 million annual budget. It has the distinction of spending the most per capita on its parks, even more than Boston in terms of park expenses per capita...

, and contains full facilities for activities including baseball, boxing, and outdoor basketball. It also contains a full gymnasium, meeting rooms, a children's playground and a spraypool (operated during the summer months).

History

The property currently occupied by Simons Park was originally farmland, owned and planted by early settlers Edward and Laura Sprague Simons. The original land was bordered by Armitage Avenue, North Avenue, Central Park Avenue and Kedzie Avenue

Kedzie Avenue

Kedzie Avenue is a major north-south street in Chicago, Illinois.Named for John H. Kedzie, an early Chicago real-estate developer, Kedzie extends more than 20 miles from the southern suburb of Olympia Fields to Bryn Mawr Avenue , and again from Lincoln Avenue to the Evanston border at Howard Street...

.

In 1916, the Fullerton Avenue Business Men's Association proposed creating a public park to serve the neighborhood, however the plan was put on hold until after World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 was over. The Northwest Park District (consolidated into the greater Chicago Park District in 1934), made a purchase of land in 1920 to establish the park, and within 8 years, a new fieldhouse had been constructed to finish the park. The fieldhouse was designed by Walter W. Ahlschlager

Walter W. Ahlschlager

Walter W. Ahlschlager was a twentieth century American architect who had his offices in Chicago for many years. Later he established an office in Dallas, Texas...

. It was remodeled in 1990 and renovated in the early 2000s.

Simon City Royals

A 1950s Chicago greaser gang called Simon City originally took their name from the park, as it was the most prominent feature in their territory at the time. After merging with another gang, this gang would eventually become the infamous Simon City Royals

Simon City Royals

The Simon City Royals, formally the Almighty Simon City Royal Nation, are a Chicago street gang which began in the late 1950s as Simon City, a greaser gang...

street gang.