CHATHAM — Residents who make up the Brown Park Advisory Board say they need the community’s help to build a much-needed community center and field house for the park, which is named after a black Chicago firefighter who died in the line of duty in 1983.
They’ve started a GoFundMe account with the goal of raising $10,000 for the Brown Memorial Park at 634 E. 86th Street. The board’s president, Carl Lewis, said he wants a lacrosse field and space for supervised activities for neighborhood children.
Beth Watson has lived in her home on 85th and St. Lawrence for 40 years. Her backyard faces the park. She said building a center would benefit the neighborhood.
"The wishes we have for what goes in there would uplift the entire community, children and adults,” she said. “The park would be much more maintained if there were a community center on the ground.”
Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th) said that the board has high ambitions. He’s not against a community center, he said, but more funds need to be raised, at least $1 million for the community to be taken seriously.
“I’m supportive of whatever we can get in the park, but I’m not sure if it has the capacity to hold a field house,” he said. “We want to explore the options to see if we can do it. A field house costs many millions of dollars, and hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in staffing.”
Lewis said the Chicago Park District told them it would cost $9 million. That money would have to come from outside the community, he said. They’re exploring ways to get it.
“I believe the Park District is already taking us quite seriously,” Lewis said. “They know us, and we’ve taken the time to make acquaintances, and they have an understanding of exactly what we’re trying to do. We’ve built a relationship with the Park District.”
Lewis said that if they fall short of their goal, they will ask the community what they should do with the money.
“We are honest people and we have one desire, and that is to build a field house here. We would go back to those who gave it to us and ask them what they would want us to do with the money, as well as ask the community what they would want us to do.”
Kiera Ellis, a spokeswoman for the Park District, said that a field house isn’t currently being considered because it’s near Tuley and Avalon parks, which both have field houses.
“Brown Memorial Park is a wonderful recreational destination enjoyed by community families, and recently received a new playground as part of Mayor Emanuel’s Chicago Plays! program,” she said.
The park is special, Lewis said. It’s named after Sidney Brown — a black Chicago firefighter who was killed on Aug. 9, 1983. He had rushed inside a burning house on 122nd and State Street after a report that three children were trapped inside. The report turned out to be wrong.
"Brown typically worked at the fire hydrant during fires, and was usually the last firefighter from his engine to enter a building, but as one of the first firefighters on scene, he and two other firefighters raced into the burning house in search of the children," according to the Firefighter Service Institute. "During his search, Brown opened a bedroom door and exposed a fire smoldering in the bedroom to a rush of oxygen. Brown was badly burned in the subsequent flashover and died from his injuries."
At an Aug. 15 ceremony, the park was rededicated to Brown. The firefighter’s family was present, along with Tuskegee Airmen, members of the Chicago African-American Firefighters League, Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th) and Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s wife Amy Rule.
All together, 12 African-American firefighters were remembered. Their names were read out loud, one at a time, followed by the ringing of a bell and a balloon release. Then there was a moment of silence.
Arifah Brown, daughter of Sidney Brown, said she appreciated what the community did to honor her father.
“It's overwhelming to be honest,” she said. "I'm really happy about it, and I know he would really be pleased. It’s a beautiful thing.”
Brown was just 8 years old when her father died. She still has memories of him taking her to the fire station.
“He would let me get on the little fire trucks, mess around, so it was really great,” Brown said, adding that she'd like to see the field house built. “He’s greatly missed, but I feel like he sees this, he knows.”
Dekalb Walcott, a retired firefighter and a representative of the Chicago African-American Firefighter Museum, first worked with Brown in 1978. He said his goal is to set up commemorative sites around the park for the various black firefighters who have died in the line of duty.
Walcott wants to educate people on the history of the black firefighter.
“A lot of people don’t even know that there were black firemen in 1872,” he said.
Last year marked the 140th anniversary of a large fire that burned down an African-American section of Chicago. In Walcott’s book, “Chicago’s Black Fire of July 14, 1874, the 2nd Great Chicago Fire,” he details how the fire covered 47 acres, or 15 blocks, from Roosevelt Road to Van Buren Street, then from Clark Street to Michigan Avenue.
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