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Leone (Sam) Beach Park

Address


1222 W. Touhy Ave.
Chicago, IL 60626

Jurisdiction

Chicago Parks

History

Leone Beach Park dates to 1919, when the City of Chicago's Bureau of Parks and Recreation acquired the park site from the Department of Water. The city had purchased the property and its pumping station from the Rogers Park Water Company in 1907. Shortly after obtaining the lakeshore property, the Bureau of Parks and Recreation remodeled the pumping station, built in 1900, for use as a fieldhouse. The park's Touhy Avenue beach included diving boards and rafts that drew neighborhood children in droves. By 1937, the park comprised 250 feet of beach frontage, including street-end beaches at Chase, Greenleaf, and Farwell Avenues. In 1959, the Chicago Park District began leasing the park, then known as Rogers Park and Beach, from the city. In 1966, the park district renamed the site Leone Park after beloved park district employee Sam Leone (1900-1965). Leone joined the Bureau of Parks and Recreation as a lifeguard after serving in the Navy during World War I. Initially, he worked at the old Clarendon Park Beach, but was moved north to Rogers Park in 1927. When Leone became a park district employee in 1959, he was named supervisor of lifeguards for the entire north side. Leone was still living above the Rogers Park beach house and supervising lifeguards and safeguarding swimmers at the time of this death at age 65.

Description

Located in the Rogers Park Neighborhood Leone Beach is the perfect place to relax on the sandy beach soaking in some rays or getting active. Our beaches are a great summer destination right in the middle of a bustling Chicago.  Leone Beach Park is 2.81 acres.