Dunham (Robert) Park

In 1945, at the end of World War II, Robert J. Dunham, President of the Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners, announced a major new initiative to bring the benefits of parks and recreation to every neighborhood in the city. As part of this effort to create new parks for the first time in many years, a citizens' advisory committee submitted a list of recommended sites in 1948. Among them was a 14-acre site in the rapidly growing Portage Park neighborhood. The Park District had to condemn land from reluctant home owners in 1929, 1948, and in 1956, an issue which even led to protesters filing into a 1945 board meeting.  After the entire site was acquired in 1956 after land acquisition and condemnation, the Engineering Department created a plan for the new park. The Park District began some improvements in 1953, however all of the houses on the site were not razed until 1958. By the early 1960s, the park included an athletic field, a children's playground, tennis courts, and a comfort station. Finally, in 1976, the district constructed a modern fieldhouse in the park.Please note that there is residential permitted parking on the east side of Melvina and the north side of Gidding.