Douglass Park Cultural and Community Center

Douglass Park, named in honor of abolitionists Frederick and Anna Murray Douglass, was designed by civil engineer and architect William Le Baron Jenney, the father of the skyscraper. It boasts lush landscapes and a wide range of activities at the Cultural and Community Center/field house. Walk one of many paths past gardens, lagoons and ponds. The park was recently renamed due to its ties to slave owner Stephen Douglas (with one “s”), who initially purchased 173 acres in 1869 for Jenney to shape into park space. The field house would not be added until 1928. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR: As you make your way from the parking lot to the steps of the Cultural and Community Center, listen for the acoustics of sound reflecting off the brick, cement and stone surfaces. An empty fenced-in pool in front of the center reflects and amplifies the sounds of neighboring basketball games and friends in conversation. The distant sounds of sirens, car traffic and helicopters flying to and from nearby hospitals blends with the sonic landscape of the park itself, filtering through vegetation.