Sherman Park is a sixty-acre park in the New City neighborhood of

South Side, Chicago The South Side is an area of Chicago, Illinois, U.S. It lies south of the city's Loop area in the downtown. Geographically, it is the largest of the three sides of the city that radiate from downtown, with the other two being the north and we ...

. It was designed by renowned landscape architects

John Charles Olmsted John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920), was an American landscape architect. The nephew and adopted son of Frederick Law Olmsted, he worked with his father and his younger brother, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., in their father's firm. After their fat ...

and

Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (July 24, 1870 – December 25, 1957) was an American landscape architect and city planner known for his wildlife conservation efforts. He had a lifetime commitment to national parks, and worked on projects in Acadia, t ...

, and celebrated Chicago architect

Daniel Burnham Daniel Hudson Burnham (September 4, 1846 – June 1, 1912) was an American architect and urban designer. A proponent of the '' Beaux-Arts'' movement, he may have been, "the most successful power broker the American architectural profession has ...

. It opened in 1905. The park's recreational facilities include two gymnasiums, a fitness center, a swimming pool, as well as outdoor space for basketball, tennis, baseball, soccer and football. The park was named for John B. Sherman, Burnham's father-in-law and a founder of Chicago's

Union Stock Yards The Union Stock Yard & Transit Co., or The Yards, was the meatpacking district in Chicago for more than a century, starting in 1865. The district was operated by a group of railroad companies that acquired marshland and turned it into a central ...

. The park was designed specifically to enrich the immigrant, working class residents of the surrounding neighborhood.

Murals

In 1912, eight students from the

School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum and ...

painted murals in the Sherman Park fieldhouse that came to be known as the American History Series. These murals commemorate events such as the founding of Jamestown in 1607, the Marquette-Joliet Expedition of 1673, and George Rogers Clark's Illinois Campaign of 1778. Over the years the murals became severely damaged due to accumulated soot and varnish. In 2004, restoration on the murals commenced with the park's inclusion in the Mural Preservation Effort, a joint project between the

Chicago Park District The Chicago Park District is one of the oldest and the largest park districts in the United States. As of 2016, there are over 600 parks included in the Chicago Park District as well as 27 beaches, several boat harbors, two botanic conservatories ...

and the Chicago Conservation Center. The restoration of the Sherman Park murals was completed in mid-2005.Charles Sheehan
Art in parks revival to get financial boost with matching funds
''Chicago Tribune''. Retrieved on September 15, 2016.

References

Parks in Chicago South Side, Chicago Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in Chicago 1905 establishments in Illinois Beaux-Arts architecture in Illinois Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois {{Chicago-geo-stub