Adams Playground Park

The best park in Chicago! Thanks to Unilocalers! Our son loves both the water park and the regular playground. They have lots of toys that kids can play with.

Filled with friendly faces. Very family oriented. My toddler loves it. Has a large sandbox, good number of swings and slides.

A clean little gem of a waterpark/​playground in the middle of the city! There’s a little fieldhouse as well with very clean bathrooms and a super friendly staff. You may pinch yourself and ask «is this really a Chicago Park District playlot???» I really think the reason lies in the fact that Adam’s is still a pretty well kept secret and is located on a dead-​end neighborhood street. There’s only a few true CPD waterpark playgrounds and this one’s the best.

Great place for kids to have fun. They have a nice waterpark slide in the summer. It’s the only Park I know that has a big sandbox. Lots of room for running. They have two wall climbing obstacles. A great place to take your kids. Oh and of course they have swings. From big kids to small will love it

This has become my kids’ favorite park. They ask for it above all others. It’s a gem tucked in LIncoln Park, both fun and beautiful. The park offers a very nice water feature, much more than other parks, with a slide and various raining spouts all on a super soft surface that’s easy on the feet. Although the entire park is fenced in, this water area is fenced off itself. Then there are two jungle gym areas, one for smaller kids, a set of swings, a huge sand box with a very nice awning shading it and a ball area (think basketball for tots). The ball area has a funnel-​shaped cone in which to shoot the ball and the ball then rolls out one of three spouts. The kids love it. The adults love it. Another great feature here is the club house which houses several activity rooms as well a public restrooms. There are several shade trees throughout the park. If you’re hungry, there’s a pizza shop a couple of blocks over that delivers! Or a very nice hamburger joint within walking distance. The free concert nights are always fun and popular with both the parents and the kids! It’s clean, fun and beautiful. Perfect.

Excellent park filled with some nice activities. The sandbox was a hit with my daughter. It was filled with beach toys-​pails, spades-​and had a large assortment of trucks, and even an excavator that kids can sit on and dig with using manual controls. It’s also shaded with an umbrella, which is a big plus on a hot, sunny day. The park also has two jungle gym sets-​one for the 5 and under crowd, and a larger one for the older kids. Plenty of swings, also. There was a push car that belonged to the park that was fun. The water park area, which is also separately enclosed, is the real gem. This one has a water tube, and a deck. Park benches are within this area for parents to sit. This is the one park where all the children were very well supervised. Bathrooms are located in the park area, and are decent. Overall, this is a great park, particularly the water park area, for a city park. I only wish we had a tenth of what most of Chicago Parks offer in Wilmington, NC. Highly recommended for an outing!

This park is great, and not just because all the rich kids hit this place up (doesn’t hurt though). The park has a huge sandbox filled with kids leftover toys (see rich kids), and a giant network of slides attached to a great Jungle-​Gym. It also has an outdoor water spray area for Summertime use. Thanks Chicago!!!
Enjoy Suckas’!!!

Great for kids 5 feet and under (at least that’s what the water park sign states). The park has a great layout and bathrooms for public use. I love he sandbox because the sand is really manageable to form sandcastles and tunnels that stay formed with little skill required to mix the right mixture of sand and water. I also enjoyed that there is a gate around the water park and around the park itself but still not to justify keeping your eyes off the kids. Overall, great park.

This park is fantastic! We have a few water playgrounds in Down Town, but this is so different from them — it feels like it’s a mini water park. Also they playground is huge. And it has the restrooms inside the building right in the playground. As I understood, they also offer summer camps and babies/​toddlers programs. AND what is mostly important for us — there are the restrooms there.

Adams has quickly become my new favorite park. Sure, others are closer (including Commercial Park, which I’m actually quite fond of)…but I love this park. The sandbox has plenty of toys (and always appears to be relatively clean), there are a few different play structures and the water park area is wonderful. (There also seem to always be buckets or balls that belong to the park for children to play with.)
I’ve always felt as though the little one is safe. It’s not always easy following his every move, especially when there are lots of little ones running around, but I feel as though I can safely follow along next to him and don’t have to worry about him falling from through somewhere.
The park is almost always busy, but never actually feels crowded. This is most likely because there is plenty of room to sit/​set your stuff and it’s a nice size park with a smart layout. Oh, and the water park? It has its own separate entrance, within the park of course, and that soft padding through most of it. The older children seem to be aware of the little ones and for the most part, parents (and nannies) seemed to have a close eye on their children.

Check the hours of the water park before heading over there because it’s closed most mornings due to summer camps. And nothing is sadder than a toddler standing in front of a closed water park. Well perhaps the mom who was looking forward to having her toddler occupied in the water park for a few hours?
This is definitely the best «water park» I’ve seen at the Chicago parks. Most of the parks have a few poles that spray, which is usually enough to excite my 19 month old. However, this one has slides, climbers and all sorts of activities right within the water park. My daughter was a bit intimidated at first, but it wasn’t long before she was filling all sorts of buckets (that seem to belong to the park) with lots of water.
On our most recent visit (this past weekend) it was super crowded and I was a little nervous my daughter would get knocked over by all the «big kids» running around. However, she made it thru an hour of fun unharmed fun. I, on the other hand, got attached by a bunch of 4 year olds with their water guns. Dangerous park!
The other side of the park is pretty standard, which is why Adams Playground doesn’t seem to be very crowded unless the water park is open. They’ve got some swings, climbers, slides, etc… as well as a large sandbox. This may be appealing to some, but sandboxes kind of gross me out so I’m happy my daughter hasn’t given this one a second look.
On a busy day it can be a bit difficult to find a parking spot, but it’s all worth it when I see my daughter’s big smile running thru the water!

This park is the BEST!
How good is THE BEST you ask? So good that the 2.5 year-​old tot I hang out with always wants to go here. All. The. Time. He used to live in Lincoln Park, a hearty 20min walk from here. Now relocated to River North, the kiddo gets psyched to ride the train up to this park! I swear his parents could move across the country and Charlie would find a way to get here :)
The basics: swings, slides, climbey things, sandbox, WATER PARK, bathrooms, water fountain, big kids and little kids. Bonus is the ice cream truck or popsicle guy, if you buy treats.
Amazing!

Love this place! Such a great waterslide for the kids– just wish it was easier to tell when its open for play and not reserved for camps…

PLEASE NOTE: I started a «new business» post for the brand new park on Adams and Sangamon in the West Loop and for some reason the review ended up getting moved to this park. WTF Unilocal — get your sh*t together:
What an awesome addition to the West Loop and a SUPER long time in the making (unfortunately just in time for the summer to be over, but there’s always nice fall nights and next year!)
This park is beautifully landscaped. It also has a great dog run on one side and a playground on the other (which leaves all of the amazing room in between for people without kids or dogs to hang out.)
There’s also a misting system which although great in theory seems to have been constructed without factoring in the wind. And by wind, I mean the slightest breeze takes the mist upward instead of towards the ground. (Maybe this will somehow be corrected).
There’s going to be movies in the park here and I’m sure by next year other great events. What’s truly perfect about this park (other than how gorgeous it is), is the fact that it’s location is far enough away from downtown (ie Millennium Park) that it’s not going to get over-​run by tourists (or for that matter by anyone not in the West Loop).
One of the best neighborhoods in the entire city just got even better. Be jealous. :-)

This place is one of the best Chicago parks we have been to!
I have a 4yr. old and she loved it. It is so well thought out. A NEW way to think about playgrounds. A NEW layout, that keeps kids moving and engaged.
we will be going back often!

This park is one of the best I have been to in the city. It has a little bit of everything. A large, well designed play space for children of all ages. In addition to the usual swings and slides, etc., the park also has a great water play area that a soft surface, a water slide, water spouts, sprinklers and a lot of toys and a large sandplay area with the same. There are also ample benches for tired parents to sit on and a large room that can be used in case of rain. We went to a birthday party here recently, which got rained on intermittently, but the room saved the day. It is a great place for casual birthday parties or get-​together with friends who have young children. My 20-​month-​old had enough to keep her busy for a while. We look for reasons to go back and hate that it is so far from us to go every day!

This hidden park is great for little (under 5) kids!

The most beautiful, secluded, well-​appointed playground in the city. Tucked-​away in a labyrinth of Lincoln Park residential streets in that triangle between, Armitage, Clybourn and Sheffield, it’s almost like this place was MEANT to be kept a secret from the urban riff-​raff. Despite this, we (and clearly many others) drive distances to bring their children to this free urban haven which:
1) is securely gated — let the shorties run free!
2) top-​of-​the-​line equipment… the likes of which I’ve only seen in the nicest suburbs with a big tax-​basis
3) GINOURMOUS sandbox littered with sand toys for all to share
4) Gorgeous and numerous shade-​trees
5) Plenty of benches, rock barriers, grass, tables, etc. for parents and care-​takers to have a rest on while the kiddies get their ya-​yas out
6) A Park District house with bathrooms, a great room for parties and smaller «class» rooms for special programs
7) A WATER PARK… no, I mean a REAL one… not just a pole or spigot with some pissy little spray. This is a mini-​version of the REAL DEAL: slides, levers, interactive stuff, etc… all separately and securely gated
8) soft, cushy, rubber ground cover around all the play equipment
9) an area with picnic tables and benches for lunch, parties, etc.
Now, there is NO WAY that, despite the relatively large tax-​base of the area, that the Chicago Park District would pay for such juvenile luxuries… of course they didn’t! Walk along the brick-​paved portion of the walkway and notice the names of families that made personal $ contributions to make this place so fabulous. Thanks, rich folk!
The only bad thing about this place is the occasional run-​in with the self-​absorbed LP mom that is too busy chatting on her Blackberry or iPhone to monitor the behavior of her little self-​absorbed fuck-​trophy. However, what is MORE sad is chatting with the nannies here (who in my experience are all wonderful with the children) only to find out that the parents of their charges are largely and perpetually absentee.
Money doesn’t buy you love, indeed. But it sure can buy a nice, safe and comfortable place for your kids to play… so I guess that’s something. For now.

I am a nanny and I love Adams Park. I took the little boy I nanny here in the summer to play in the water part and it was so much fun! He loved it and I can’t wait to take him back this year!
Also, we attend a class during the week with Ms. Maureen… she is amazing! We do the «mom’s, pop’s and tots» class for 12−24month olds. Maureen is super interactive, she knows each child by name and always provides fun and enriching activities! We like the class so much we’ve already signed up for the next session and recommended it to numerous people!

For a Chicago Park District playground, this place is top notch. The playground has all the elements for a fun time with kids– enclosed premises, water park, sandbox, padded flooring & restroom facilitites.
It has to be top notch considering the location (heart of Lincoln Park).