Free Medicinal Herb Walk at Skinner Park
When: Sunday, October 3, 2021 from 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM Register here
Where: Skinner (Mark) Park, 1331 W. Adams St. This event is Outdoors. May be rescheduled due to weather. Youth must be accompanied by an adult.
Join instructor Alexy Irving on a Medicinal Herb Walk at the Community Roots Demonstration Garden at Skinner Park. Mr. Irving will guide attendees through the garden to harvest medicinal herbs while discussing the benefits to the body based on scientific data and spiritual oral history.
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Free family workshop Skinner Park
About Skinner Park (redacted from Chicago Park District website)
Skinner Park totals 7.01 acres and features a small fieldhouse.
In 1848, as the Illinois and Michigan Canal Trustees prepared sale maps for public land to generate revenue that would be used to build the canal, they set aside a 5 ½ acre parcel to create a small park originally named Jefferson Park,
During Chicago’s earliest history, the neighborhood surrounding Jefferson Park was one of Chicago’s most fashionable areas. After the Great Fire of 1871, however, the residential area began to decline, and the park also slowly deteriorated.
The City transferred the site to the West Park Commission in 1885, and the commission substantially improved the park.
In 1915 a group of local residents petitioned for a children’s playground, wading pool, natatorium, and outdoor gymnasium. As this project would have required filling in the park’s lake, the commissioners decided not pursue it at that time.
In 1934, when the West Park Commission was consolidated into the Chicago Park District, the park became known as the “the first Jefferson Park” because the park district also took possession of another site named Jefferson Park on the city’s Northwest side.
The first Jefferson Park remained unchanged until 1955, when it was renamed in honor of the adjacent Mark Skinner School. One of Chicago’s earliest school inspectors, Mark Skinner (1836-1887) went on to serve as a U.S. attorney for Illinois, and a State Representative.
Soon after its renaming, the park’s lake was filled to make way for ball fields and a playground. In the mid 1970s, Whitney Young Magnet High School opened just southwest of the park.
Over the years, adjacent streets were greened over, and Skinner Park was expanded to slightly more than 7 acres.
