• Kennedy (Dennis) Park
• Bird sanctuary and wildflower preserve
• 16-inch softball tradition
• Morgan Park community context

Kennedy Park takes its name from Dennis J. Kennedy, a Calumet Park District Commissioner who served from 1910 until his death in 1932. The land itself started out as a dump site and a single ball field; Morgan Park residents petitioned the Calumet Park District to acquire it in 1911, and by 1912 the district had purchased the property, initially known simply as Western Avenue Park.

Full-scale improvements came in 1930, when Unemployed Relief Service laborers cleared hundreds of tons of old auto frames and concrete from the site by hand, graded the land, and built a fieldhouse, while the Morgan Park Woman's Club helped establish a bird sanctuary and wildflower preserve on five undeveloped acres. Renamed for Kennedy in 1932 and absorbed into the Chicago Park District in 1934, the park has hosted Chicago's 16-inch softball tradition for decades, home to tournaments honored by the sport's own Hall of Fame.

MY-NHD's Kennedy Park collection is built for a neighborhood that turned a dump site into a park, and the park into a neighborhood.