Hamlin Park

Hamlin park pool is great. I went with a group of 5 adults and we all enjoyed ourselves. It is clean, frequent turnover (we got lounge chairs pretty quickly), and EASY.
The beach, although close by, is always more of a SANDY hassle than a pool day.
The life guards are great and even looked out for us adults when kids nearby were splashing.
We will definitely be back. Hidden water oasis in Lakeview/​Roscoe Village!

Adding a star back because the bag was fixed. I’ll add more if they continue attending to the basics. We’re getting there Hamlin.

Hamlin Park Boxing is the real deal! It’s a small, rugged gym but their boxing coach Bill is top notch and they have a ton of good boxers there. And it’s dirt cheap, $ 30! Park district boxing is a staple of Chicago and Hamlin Park is the reason why. Your gonna learn how to box over there. They also have a lot of kids boxing there as well as teens and women. Bill trains anyone who’s willing to put in the work.

Update to my earlier review of this poorly run park. I left my phone number with the teacher who turned us away from my son’s class to pass along to her supervisor (per the teacher’s suggestion) and never heard back from the park supervisor. I then had my wife call the park and leave messages, only to have her never here back from anyone. Finally my wife drove down and spoke directly with someone at the park office who made excuses for the park director, citing personal problems, and promised that someone would contact us. We never heard back. Finally, my wife went directly to the finance department of the Chicago Park District via phone. After explaining the situation and the lack of attention from the Hamlin Park staff, the nice person in finance issued a credit in full for the class we were turned away from. So here’s the deal. Over one month, numerous calls, and a personal visit and nothing has generated a response or apology from Hamlin park’s local administration. Pathetic customer service to say the least. And this is from the National Gold Medal winner for park systems in 2014. How horrible must it be in other cities I wonder? This park needs a new director and the staff should be disbursed to other parks for retraining, as they obviously don’t have a clue how to do their jobs properly.

Lovely pool, great resource for neighborhood. Play area lovely and we often attend their summer outdoor events here. They did a great Easter egg hunt last year, hope they do it again this year!

Love the pool but why do the life guards reserve seats for themselves? I’m here right now and they have 3 chairs reserved that they use every hour for 10 minutes. Doesn’t seem fair, they are working and this pool is for the public to use… Including the chairs.

Great pool in the neighborhood. Lots of lounge chairs for laying out (even though you should get there early because everyone else does). Great for sun bathing and swimming if you’re not in the mood of the beach. Also easy street parking!

This is almost like a private pool for the people of the neighborhood. Free, safe, and with a lot of chairs for sunbathers. Great spot.
Back in the day when I used to visit this area this park was run down (1990s) but now it is perhaps a model park for people interested in seeing how a city park can be transformed. Now, that all of the low income residents of the Lathrop Homes have been pushed out of the area there is not a lot of diversity here with the cost of homes in this area topping $ 800,000 (I remember when they were $ 180,000) but this rich new neighborhood base means that the city has put out chairs, and keeps this place up like a hotel pool. No there are not massages and spa treatments, but this is perhaps the best pool in the city and it is FREE. Bring a towel, a book, your sunglasses, and spend a day at a really nice pool.
The city needs to do this everywhere — not only where you need $ 800K to buy a house.
Love this place for what it is, and how it can be a model for other city parks and pools.

Five Stars might be a slight exaggeration given the fact that I haven’t been to Hamlin Park for many, many years. However, it sounds like it is still going strong and may even be better than my childhood memories reflect. As a kid, Hamlin Park was a hub of activity for kids including the fine swimming pool in the summer and the ice-​skating rink in the winter (complete with warming hut). Sports, dance classes and big recitals each year framed the seasons for the local kids and families. Safe playgrounds and CYO camps rounded out the year. Perhaps, best of all was the branch of the Chicago Public Library where we got our first library cards and where reading was as important as all the other activities. Three Cheers for Hamlin Park!

Ps. After moving to a home right down the street from Hamlin Park, I must reiterate my absolutely love and adoration of it. I had never experienced it outside of the pool, but it’s just… really, the best a City park could offer.
Shady old trees, ball fields galore, a dog park, tennis courts, bball courts, little leaguers in the summer making their dreams come true, a huge play park and green space for families, picnics, a big old field house (with a gym! My husband goes — it’s $ 20/​month), that super sultry pool (I didn’t make it this summer, damn)…and just the right amount of greenery to keep one sane in the city.
Chalk it up, my favorite park in Chicago. Would’ve happily called it «near home» had my life let me!

The equipment at this playground area is a bit dated, but at the same time it’s still fun and functional. My 3 year old son was tearing through it and having a blast. The park also featured a basketball area, a baseball diamond, and a pool, I believe. Seems like a really nice place to kick it in the Spring.
Enjoy Suckas’!!!

The only reason I’m not giving 1 star is because the park itself is nice– when you don’t need help from anyone. I’ve used the park for a photoshoot, hula hooping, tennis, and fitness bootcamp (from an outside company) without incident.
The real issue comes when you need employee assistance. I was interested in a fitness center membership because I live so close by. The website was difficult to navigate, so I walked over to speak to someone in-​person. The young lady working was so disengaged and so far from the welcome desk that I thought she was someone’s wandering daughter. I finally had to call out, «DO YOU WORK HERE?» …I hate being that person!
She showed me the fitness center promptly, to be fair. However, the second I entered, the single patron inside told me that all of the treadmills were broken. Yup, they were. I asked when they would be fixed, and the girl «helping» me looked at me as if I were an alien. OK, thank you, nevermind…
I stewed on it a few days, and decided the convenient location deserved another chance. I called to ask about the future of the treadmills. The employee first said «I don’t know,» then corrected and informed me that the cardio machines wouldn’t be fixed for «six months.» Excuse me?! Are the treadmills made from alien technology, or something?
Given that I want a cardio-​heavy workout, I simply cannot use this facility. Nobody seems to know how or when the machines will be fixed, and no discount or additional help was offered. Everyone I’ve encountered in this process has seemed informed yet totally disinterested, so I’ll be working out elsewhere.
Will review again if I get to use the pool…

Pool is still fabulous as always. You know what else is great? The boxing class at Hamlin Park. This is Chicago Park District’s best deal. It’s $ 43 a session — which is 14 weeks long. Plus, the classes are every Mon, Wed, Thurs, Fri from 7 – 9 and Sat from 10 – 12. You can come whenever you want and stay for the full two hours or shorter. Best. Deal. Ever.
The instructor is in his (I think) 70s and seems to have been teaching for years. Everyone knows him by name (Bill). He’s fantastic. My friend, my fiancé, and I decided to take boxing as a way to get some more cardio in. The first class we came in, we did a quick jumproping as warm up, and then he started us on shadowboxing (how to move). Most of the classes now, Bill shows us a new move and we practice on the bags. The class is very freeform as there are a bunch of other people in there training and boxing. Depending on the amount of people, you may have to rotate into a body bag, speed bag, etc. The other boxers are really great too as they don’t mind if we spar against them. And the workout! Last week, the following muscles hurt for two days: pecs, triceps, biceps, shoulders, back, and abs. Boxing for an hour or so doesn’t feel like work. I will definitely be continuing boxing next session.

1 Star — Booooo !!!
I took my Lad to the field house in December to play some basketball. It turns out that there are two courts, a large and a small. While it may have been true in the past that the gym use was free, this is no longer the case.
There was one guy working who was teaching some kinder-​activity class. No other non-​janitorial employ appeared to be there. There was nobody at the front desk, and we waited for 5 minutes. So, we went to the large gym (where we met kinder-​boy), and stood there for 10 minutes, basket ball in hand … and were completely ignored. I finally had to ask out loud if there was someone who worked there who could answer some questions. The guy, annoyed, said he was in the middle of teaching a class. If I were him, and I saw two clueless looking people enter the gym, I would have at least acknowledged them and given them 20 seconds to either explain that I’d be able to help them in 20 minutes, or direct them to ask my colleague at the front desk (who in this case, was nowhere to be found) to provide assistance.
The fact that you have to pay a ransom for the gym use, and the fact that guy was pretty much a douche has really turned me off to the place.

I’ve been loving the Hamlin Park; really, mostly the pool. The large, glorious pool.
I moved nearby the park last fall and discovered the outdoor pool while it was still too cold out to enjoy, so I eagerly waited to try it out while the weather warmed up. Earlier this summer, on a particularly hot/​sweaty day, I had an intense urge to get to the pool asap and swim my heart out. So I did.
I had a few hours left in the ‘open swim’ window (early afternoon on a Sunday), so I hot footed it to the pool and waited in a relatively fast-​moving line. The pool had reached capacity of 300 people, so no one was allowed in until someone left (a good thing).
Once I gained entry through the (pearly) gate and found a spot, I left my belongings and jumped in. It was great — it’s a huge pool with lots of space around to lie your towel/​bag, on tidy cement flooring. There are lounge chairs around too, but they fill up quick.
*Yes, there are a lot of children. Yes, it gets noisy. Yes, it’s a *public* pool — so you’re bound to encounter people from all walks of life (babies/youngin’s with their parents, rowdy teens :-|, older folks) — all that being said, it’s been a most enjoyable experience each time I’ve been here.
Lifeguards patrol the pool quite sternly (they yell at people for splashing, hanging on the middle divider, kids going into the deep end), it seems clean and well maintained, and it’s supremely refreshing on hot summer days. I need to take advantage of this more while it’s still hot out!
The park also offers lots of classes & activities in their large building/​gyms. Very nice!

Love this pool!
I’ve been coming here for a few years and I am never disappointed.
It’s free and you just walk in with no hassle. If you get here at noon, you should be able to snag a chair which are super comfortable. However, even if all the chairs are taken, people come and go frequently so I’ve always been able to get one eventually.
It’s a standard pool… nothing fancy. It starts at about 2 ft deep and goes to about 8 ft.
There are more young adults here (25 and up) than any other age group. There are some young families with kids which is actually pretty entertaining to watch the lil munckins in the water. Ahh… to be young again.
There are a few 10 minute breaks where everyone has to exit the water… even the adults. At about 3 p.m., the lifeguards make an announcement that open swim is over. It’s a bit confusing because it’s not really over. The pool is cleared for 20 minutes and then everyone can enter the water again until about 5.
Oh and you can bring games, toys, etc in the water. No rafts or anything but if you want to throw a football around or whatever, you can.
There is no food or beverages offered in the pool but there are several ice cream vendors that work the park. You can bring in drinks but no coolers as I’ve witnessed some people try to do.

Oh how I adore the Hamlin Park pool. Seriously. I have been coming to this pool since the first summer I moved here 4 years ago, and it rarely, if ever, disappoints.
The pool is just a short walk from my house, and they have ample lounge chairs that you may be lucky enough to snag, IF you get there in plenty of time. A line starts to form first thing in the morning, so if you want a chair, buck up and arrive no later than 15 minutes ahead of opening.
It does get quite crowded on the weekends. In fact, last summer there were a number of occasions where the pool had reached capacity! People had to wait outside of the pool area until other pool goers decided they’d had enough sun for the day. Another reason to get there early.
There are tons of kids and families, but they tend to stay in the shallow end. I love it because I don’t have to deal with icky sand at Lake Michigan, and I can just jump in, cool off, and then get back to my chair and enjoy my summer reading.
It’s also… FREE. There are facilities at the park, such as showers and restrooms nearby, so you can be quite comfortable while you’re there. There really is no shade, so I would highly suggest bringing some sun block or a hat.
The Hamlin Park pool is what keeps me sane while living in Chicago, as it is an activity that I look so forward to once the weather actually gets nice here. I’ve already been here once this year, and plan on being back as often as I can!

I feel like I’ve been living a lie all of these years in Chicago and not knowing about this gem of a spot.
All I have ever wanted in the heat of summer is a cold pool — and Hamlin Park is where it’s at!
It’s free after 12 p.m. on Saturday/​Sunday ($ 22 for the adult swim 11 — 12) but go early as once they are at capacity, you have to wait to get in.
And, bring your own bevies and snacks — the vending machine is often out of water, etc.

POOL
Pluses: 1. It’s cold! 2. It’s clean! 3. It’s Free!!!
Minuses: 1. Like another reviewer said, there aren’t many lounge chairs so you’ll probably end up with your towel on the concrete. 2. If you are fortunate enough to have an early afternoon weekday off in the summer, you’ll likely run into a summer camp at the pool. The kids are rowdy, but if you’re in it for the recreation rather than the relaxation, you’ll be able to hold out until 330 when all the kids seem to go home.

Are you sick of the hoopla that goes with going to the beach? The abysmal parking, the sand in all your crevices, lack of bathrooms, icky Lake Michigan water… it’s, well, less than desirable. And unless you’re lucky enough to have a rooftop deck pool, chances are your tan isn’t nearly as slammin’ as you want it to be this summer. So unless you want to lay out in your alley, you gots to hit up one of Chicago’s public pools.
I’m a fan of Hamlin Park’s pool. First, it’s huge. Second, it’s chlorinated, so (hopefully) clean. Third, there’s no sand. Big, big wins.
I equate the crowd to «North Beach Lite.» Your basic mix up of 20 somethings working on their tans with some neighborhood kids splashing in the pool and a few Roscoe Village families thrown in for good measure.
Here’s the one big problem with Hamlin Park pool, though. Serious lack of chairs. Unless you barrel in there right when the pool opens, you don’t have a shot in hell of getting a chaise lounge, so be prepared to camp out on the hard concrete.