Jonquil Park is a 3.25-acre Chicago Park District park at 1001 W. Wrightwood Ave., where Wrightwood, Lincoln and Sheffield avenues meet in Lincoln Park. It has a playground, a water spray feature, tennis courts, a baseball field, open lawn and a plaza with a garden and game tables.
What it’s known for
The site was once a Chicago Transit Authority storage yard for salt and snow-removal equipment. The Park District began leasing it in 1969 and bought it in 1981. It was named in the mid-1970s, when many new parks were named for plants; the jonquil is a spring-blooming bulb in the Narcissus family.
The park’s best-known feature is Eagle Columns, a 1988 bronze by Chicago sculptor Richard Hunt, paid for by the local community and a National Endowment for the Arts grant and inspired by a Vachel Lindsay poem about Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld; it was conserved in 2009 and 2010. Each October the park hosts the Lincoln Park Wine Fest, which benefits the Wrightwood Neighbors Association; the 2026 edition ran Oct. 9 to 11.
Good to know
- Hours: Daily 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., per the official site, October 2026.
- Admission: Free.
- Playground: The playlot has a soft, ADA-accessible surface with swings, slides and climbing equipment.
- Tip: The Wine Fest takes over the park for a weekend each October, so check the dates before planning a playground visit then.
See the kid-friendly Lincoln Park guide, Lincoln Park parks by size and the Lincoln Park events calendar.
Sources: chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks-facilities/jonquil-park, chicagoevents.com/event/lincoln-park-wine-fest
