Washington Park, Woodlawn

Washington Park is separated from the Hyde Park neighborhood on the west by the campus of the University of Chicago.  Washington Park is home to South Side landmarks including the DuSable Museum of African American History (740 E. 56th Pl.) and its sculpture garden and the Lorado Taft sculpture Fountain of Time. The neighborhood's namesake park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Of additional historical note, Chicago Tribute Markers of Distinction commemorate where notable Chicagoans lived and worked. A marker in Washington Park honors playwright Lorraine Hansberry.

Woodlawn, which borders the University on the south, is the home of The Woodlawn Organization, one of the nation's premier neighborhood empowerment groups.

Many prominent African Americans, including civil rights activist Ida B. Wells and Olympic champion Jesse Owens, are buried at Oak Woods Cemetery (1035 E. 67th St.), which is also the largest burial site for confederate soldiers in the north. The cemetery contains many architecturally significant monuments and is the resting place of former mayors William Hale Thompson and Harold Washington.

Bordering Woodlawn is a mile-long linear park called the Midway Plaisance, one of the sites of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition—home to the original Ferris Wheel and Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The Midway now features indoor ice skating in the winter.

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