LINCOLN PARK — Oz Park and its popular playground is getting an upgrade nearly 50 years after opening to the public. And bonus: Crews will get rid of a giant underground rat bed.
The new Dorothy’s Playlot will still feature the classic red roofs and familiar layout of the original playground, but it will be built with sustainable lumber, said Judy Johanson, Oz Park Advisory Council president.
The new playground was designed by the same company that designed the original in 1988. It will include modern upgrades such as bouncy bridges, twisty slides, a rock climbing wall and other attractions.
The park will also unveil a new life-size “face wall” that was designed by Lincoln Park High School student Jasmine Yau. The design features renderings of Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion with cutouts so visitors can take photos as the movie characters.
“The kids are going to absolutely love it,” Johanson said.
The plan for a new playground had been in the works for three years, Johanson said. The old playground was made with wood that had started to rot.
Construction began this month, and it couldn’t have come soon enough, Ald. Timmy Knudsen (43rd) said.
“The unsexy truth is that there is one of the largest rat beds in the city of Chicago under the turf of that playground,” Knudsen said.
Park District officials were aware of the rat bed before demolition, Knudsen said. Part of the process includes abating the property for rodents. Contractors on site this week are working though that process, Knudsen said.
Chicago has routinely ranked as the rattiest city in the country.
The old playground was built with treated wood that eventually started to wear down, and people complained to Knudsen’s office about kids getting splinters, the alderman said. The new playground will use recycled plastic material from suburban Aurora-based company Tangent.
State Rep. Margaret Croke has so far secured $100,000 in state funds for the project. Community donations, public funding from Knudsen’s office and a sizable donation from the Ishbia Family Foundation also helped pay for the new playground.
Johanson hopes it will be completed in July, she said.
In the ’60s, the Lincoln Park Conservation Association approached the city with ideas on how to improve the community. The group designated a 13-acre plot for a new park as part of its urban renewal plan. The Park District bought the land in 1975.
A year later, Oz Park became an official city park, named in honor of former Humboldt Park resident and newspaper reporter Lyman Frank Baum, the author of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”
Dorothy’s Playlot was built in 1988 in just three days thanks to the work from a group of parents. Its name relates to the park’s Oz theme and pays tribute to donor Dorothy Melamerson, who was part of the lot’s building team. Melamerson was a retired local teacher whose savings paid for a number of park improvements, which was in her will when she died.
Since the park’s opening, the Oz Park Advisory Council and Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce have commissioned statues featuring all five of the main characters from “The Wizard of Oz,” and it has become one of the most visited and used parks in Chicago.
Other upgrades in recent years include a $161,000 renovation of the baseball fields, a $104,000 tennis court resurfacing and a new pickleball court that is being finished near the tennis courts.
Vicki Wilson lived in Lincoln Park in the late ’80s and vaguely remembers the early days of when the playground was built.
“It was a big deal because it was a pretty fancy playground for its time,” Wilson said. “Back then, we were used to metal jungle gyms, so this was state of the art for the time.”
Wilson and her husband moved around for work — Florida, California, Seattle — before eventually moving back to the neighborhood a few years ago, she said. Now that Dorothy’s Playlot is getting a much-needed revamp, Wilson will be one of neighbors who can say she’s been there for the start of both iterations.
As for the rats, it comes with the territory of living in a big city, she said.
“I never feel like that’s just an ‘us’ problem,” Wilson said. “I know that issue has a lot to do with environmental factors. It happens where people live and where animals live and the intersection of those two things. But I can’t imagine being on that bulldozer. That must have been a sight to see.”
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