History
Columbia Beach Park is one of 18 street-end beaches acquired by the Chicago Park District from the City of Chicago in 1959. As there is no earlier record of an established beach where Columbia Avenue meets Lake Michigan, the site may have been a private beach prior to the park district's acquisition. The city's Bureau of Parks and Recreation also had operated small municipal beaches along Chicago's north shore since at least 1921.
Columbia Avenue takes its name from New York's Columbia University, established in 1794. Columbia University (then College) was the alma mater of A.W. Wallen, the real estate developer who subdivided the section of Rogers Park in which the street and its namesake beach are located.
