History:
Crescent Park is one of six parks established by the Calumet Park District, one of 22 independent park commissions consolidated into the Chicago Park District in 1934. In 1912, at the urging of Morgan Park residents, the Calumet Park District began to purchase a rectangular piece of land for a new neighborhood park. The park's creation eliminated the northernmost portion of Crescent Street, the elliptical drive that had previously run through the property. Noted landscape architect Jens Jensen, who had prepared plans for the Calumet District's Bohn Park and Prospect Gardens, designed a plan for the park in 1915. Landscape improvements began shortly thereafter. In 1916, the park district officially named the site Crescent Park for the drive that had once arced through it. (The east and west sections of the drive have since been renamed Oakley and Bell Avenues.) The Calumet Park District transferred Crescent Park to the new Chicago Park District in 1934. In 1935, the Chicago Park District began adding recreational features. These facilities are nestled into the natural grades of the Tinley Groundmoraine backslope. This glacial feature provides the well-drained high ground necessary for Crescent Park's black and white oak trees to thrive.
