Wheeling Park District Park History

IN THE BEGINNING
A special election “to vote upon the question of the proposed ‘Wheeling Park District,’ Cook County, Illinois, and to elect five Park Commissioners” was held on Friday, December 23, 1960, at Mark Twain School. Also on the ballot that day were the names of the first Park Commissioners:  Arthur Aronson, Arthur Brown, Audrae Duke, Ralph Neubauer and Theodore Scanlon. The Organizational Meeting of the Board of Commissioners of the Wheeling Park District was held January 11, 1961. Arthur Brown was chosen as the first President of the Park Board. The regular meetings of the Board were held at the Village Hall.  Since the Park District did not own any property, programs were held in the schools and on the playgrounds of School District #21.

Three adjoining lots on Nancy Lane, totaling ½ acre, were essentially donated by the Village of Wheeling in 1962 and Meadowbrook Park (now Meadowbrook Tot Lot) became the first park.  The property adjacent to the park (2.3 acres) was obtained by the Village of Wheeling from the Metropolitan Sanitary District in 1976 and the Park District signed an intergovernmental agreement in 1982 to lease the land for a term of 99 years.

PRESENT DAY
Currently the Wheeling Park District maintains and operates 10 park sites consisting of Heritage Park, Husky Park, Meadowbrook Tot Lot, Northside Park, Chamber Park, Childerley Park, Denoyer Park, Pleasant Run, Malibu Park, Horizon Park. Since the Wheeling Parks Districts conception, it has grown to 10 parks and 16 sites including Chevy Chase Traditions and Country Club totaling 270 acres servicing a community of 34,498 residents.