Located in the Washington Heights community area, Brainerd Park totals 9.56 acres and features a gymnasium, and four multi-purpose rooms. Green features of our facility include a front entrance flower bed. Outside, the parks offers four baseball fields, basketball, volleyball and tennis courts, a spray pool, playground, football/soccer field. Many of these spaces are available for rental including our gymnasium, fields, and multi-purpose rooms.

Park-goers can participate in Park Kids, seasonal sports, and Senior and Teen Clubs. After school programs are offered throughout the school year, and in the summer youth attend the Park District’s popular six-week day camp. Specialty camps are offered in the summer as well, and include Teen Camp and Basketball Camp.

In addition to programs, Brainerd Park hosts fun special events throughout the year for the entire family.

During the decade between 1920 and 1930, the population of the fashionable Beverly Community Area grew by nearly 80%. To meet the area's increasing recreational needs, the Ridge Park District, one of 22 independent park boards consolidated into the Chicago Park District in 1934, began to develop a new park in Beverly's Brainerd neighborhood. In 1932, the Ridge Park District attempted to purchase some Chicago Board of Education property in the neighborhood; however, financial difficulties delayed the transaction. By the time the Chicago Park District was created in 1934, the Ridge Park District had made only an initial down payment on the property. Three years later, in 1937, a delegation from the Brainerd Improvement Association approached the Chicago Park District commissioners, urging them to acquire and develop the park.  The Chicago Park District finalized the land purchase the following year and acquired the property from the Chicago Board of Education. The Chicago Park District quickly began improvements, installing outdoor athletic facilities and constructing a small fieldhouse. In the 1970s, a larger fieldhouse took the place of the original.

The park was named Brainerd Park in 1941. The Brainerd Park name derives from that of Mr. Brainerd, one of five founders of the Rock Island Railroad for whom Beverly area streets were named. Though Brainerd Street became 91st Street when the City of Chicago annexed the northern portion of Beverly in 1890, the neighborhood designation survived, and was passed on to this park.