Lovelace Park
Farmland to FunlandHow did a pit become a park? Bernard Place neighbor Sigrid Pilgrim recently loaned me a wonderful piece of neighborhood history—an exhibit made by her daughter Karen Pilgrim when she was an ETHS senior in 1987. Karen's prize-winning project traces the transition from farmland in 1912 to a gravel pit in 1916 and ultimately to Lovelace Park in the 1970s. Clicking on the image takes you to a larger version. Below is a slideshow of the elements on the trifold. Clicking on any image in the slideshow takes you to the Picasa album where you can view the images full size and hopefully read the articles. Here, and at bottom of page, is a link to a PDF of an article Karen clipped to the presentation: The Truth About the Doetsch Pit published in 1953 by the Northwest Evanston Property Owners Association.
Thanks to Sigrid and Karen Pilgrim for sharing this fun bit of history with the neighborhood.
Clicking on any image in the slideshow takes you to a Google Photos album where you can view the images full size and hopefully read the articles. More info on the Doetsch Pit and cool aerial images can be found Here.
More Lovelace Photos
As a child living in Hillside Village, I (Becca) was excited when a sign was erected that read “Future site of Lovelace Park” but the park and playground did not become a reality until I was an adult! I question some of the dates marked on the later articles in the tri-fold because I remember Lovelace Park being ready for play when my son, Zach, was 6 months old in 1976. Click here for some of my favorites photos of the park from over the years. Feel free to submit your own favorite photos of the park to share!
Disclaimers and explanations: I apologize for the poor quality of the photos of Karen's excellent project. I spent a lot of time but with my lame camera they are still marginal. I hope you can read them. (I also created a cool image map of the tri-fold so when clicked, that area of the image would enlarge. However, I can't figure out how to post it to Google sites, so if anyone out there knows, contact me! :) Becca