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Category Archives: Parks
Jerome Leland’s pigeons
In the early 20th century, Springfield hotel menus often included squab – breast of squab, “royal squab sur canape,” etc. But pigeons (the more common name for squab) made their way into the heart, not the stomach, of Jerome A. … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Animals, Buildings, Farming, Hotels & taverns, Parks, Prominent figures
3 Comments
Comer Cox, Urban League leader
Comer Cox, the namesake of Comer Cox Park in Springfield, was an Alabama native and star athlete in his youth who went on to lead the Springfield Urban League. Comer Lane Cox was born May 9, 1905, in Athens, Ala. … Continue reading
Springfield Sallies (professional women’s baseball)
The Springfield Sallies were one of the least successful, and also shortest-lived, teams in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The league, whose memory was revived by the 1992 movie “A League of Their Own,” lasted from 1943 to 1954. … Continue reading
Posted in Amusements, Parks, Prominent figures, Sports and recreation, Women
2 Comments
Women’s golf, 1899
“A crowd of young society women in 1899 shocked the conventions of the day by reckless indulgence in a game called golf,” the Illinois State Journal recalled in 1931. Most of that sentence was nonsense. There’s no evidence anyone was … Continue reading
Rees Memorial Carillon
Before the Springfield Park Board could build a carillon in Washington Park, it had to answer two questions: how many bells would it hold, and what kind would they be? When newspaper publisher Thomas Rees died in 1933, he left … Continue reading
Cotton Hill
Cotton Hill was the only community wiped from the map by the construction of Lake Springfield in the 1930s. But there wasn’t much there to begin with. The Illinois State Journal explained the origin of Cotton Hill in an editorial … Continue reading
Posted in Communities, Local government, Parks
5 Comments
Iron Spring, Washington Park
The Iron Spring in Washington Park originally poured forth from a sandstone cave at the foot of a steep clay bluff. Cattle drank its water. But when Washington Park opened in 1901, the spring was one of its earliest attractions. … Continue reading
Founding of Douglas Park, 1921
The Springfield Park Board bought the property that became Douglas Park (later Duncan Park) in September 1920, but there was a problem with developing the new land: the neighborhood stank.* The park district paid $20,000 to buy the 26-acre “Enos … Continue reading
Posted in Local government, Parks, Public health
5 Comments
Camp Sangamo
When the Boy Scouts opened their first Camp Sangamo in 1920, the amenities included a Victrola, a croquet set and two rowboats. But no telephone. As the Scout organization explained in the Illinois State Journal prior to opening: There will … Continue reading
Posted in Children, Parks, Sports and recreation
2 Comments
Carnegie library pillars
The five limestone columns that face the courtyard of the Washington Park Horticulture Center make up the last exterior remains of Springfield’s old Carnegie library. Andrew Carnegie paid part of the construction cost of the old library, which opened in … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Arts and letters, Parks, Uncategorized
3 Comments