The 1937 Building Recreation Park Decided to Keep Opens Its Doors November 7
November 5, 2026
November 5, 2026
In August 2023, the Arlington Heights Park District applied for a state grant to rebuild the aquatic side of Recreation Park. One line in the application described the oldest community center the district owns as a building that had never quite done the job it was built for.
Renovation of an existing inaccessible recreation center into a fully accessible bathhouse (its intended purpose), while maintaining the original façade of a well-loved WPA building, initially constructed in 1937
In that plan, the brick building at 500 E. Miner St. would have gone back to being a bathhouse. The finished project takes a different path. On Saturday, November 7, the same building reopens as a renovated community center. Next door, crews are still building a brand-new bathhouse and a new 50-meter pool. The decision to keep the building split one project into two buildings on two schedules, and this weekend the first one opens.
The 2023 grant plan was mostly about the water. It called for removing the existing 50-meter pool and building a new one in its place, along with an updated children's aquatic area and more green space for pool users. Changing the old building's use was part of that same plan. In January 2024, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources picked the district as one of 12 recipients of a Park and Recreational Facility Construction grant. The award was $2.8 million for improvements at Recreation Park.
By the summer of 2024, the plan had changed. When the Daily Herald reported on the village board's first approval in August 2024, the later phases still waiting for review included "preservation and restoration of the Works Progress Administration-built field house." The paper put the whole three-phase refresh at an estimated $23.6 million at the time. On August 27, 2024, the park board discussed revised renderings that kept the existing community center and replaced the old bathhouse with a new building.
That revision explains the rest of the project. If the 1937 building had become the bathhouse, its reopening would have been tied to the pool. Because a new bathhouse took that job, the old building could be finished on its own schedule.
Recreation Park has not been rebuilt all at once. It has come back one piece at a time over more than two years, and the district's own project log shows the order.
| When | What happened at Recreation Park |
|---|---|
| July 2024 | The old playground was removed by Kids Around the World, a group that ships used equipment overseas for reuse |
| June 9, 2025 | Phase I opened: inclusive playground, tennis courts, and story walk, celebrated on AHPD's 100th birthday |
| August 2025 | The pool closed for the season so the next phase could begin |
| September 22, 2025 | Groundbreaking for the new pool and bathhouse, with work already underway inside the community building |
| October 2025 | The new skatepark opened |
| December 2025 | Demolition of the old pool and bathhouse was finished |
| August 2026 | Concrete work continued on the pool and bathhouse structure |
| November 7, 2026 | Grand opening of the renovated community center |
The two buildings drifted apart over the summer. The district's August update said it expected the community center to open mid-summer. It also said it could not confirm an opening date for the pool and bathhouse but hoped they might open late in the summer. The center now opens in November. The pool has no announced date, and the district's project page is the place to watch for one.
The outdoor work cost more than first planned. The Daily Herald reported phase one at $3.3 million when the village approved it in August 2024. When that phase opened in June 2025, the paper described it as a $4 million project paid for mostly from district reserves. State money helped. The district received a $600,000 Open Space Land Acquisition and Development grant for Phase I in March 2023 and a second $600,000 grant for Phase II in February 2024. The Arlington Heights Park Foundation committed $200,000 toward the accessible playground.
The district calls the Recreation Park community center its oldest, built in 1937 as a Works Progress Administration project. FGM Architects designed the renovation. The work on the existing building, as shown in the February 2025 design presentation, called for replacing every window and adding a new vestibule and an elevator. In the 2023 plan, the building was described as "inaccessible." The elevator responds directly to that word, and it lets the building keep its WPA exterior while serving people who couldn't easily use it before.
The district hasn't published a room-by-room list of the finished interior. Saturday's guided tours will be the first chance most people get to see inside. A few practical details are already settled:
Here is the plan for the grand opening, as posted by the park district:
For families with young children, the morning works best if you include the rest of the park. The train-themed playground was the district's first accessible playground, and the Daily Herald reported that the train theme nods to the nearby railroad tracks. Phase I also added picnic shelters, outdoor fitness equipment, a bag toss court, and a story walk built in partnership with the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, which also partnered on the parking. The skatepark is open too. Under the posted rules, bicycles, scooters, and motorized wheels are not allowed.
The park also looks different from how it did a few summers ago. The project expanded onto land along its edges. The district had already bought and torn down Grandt's Shell at 406 E. Northwest Highway in 2020. In August 2024, the Daily Herald reported that two recently closed auto shops at 500 and 506 E. Northwest Highway and an apartment building at 21 S. Belmont Ave., all owned by the district, were set to be demolished as phase one began. The district also replaced more trees than it removed. Of the 156 trees counted on the site and the village right-of-way, 18 were slated for removal in Phase I. Permits required 50 replacements, and the district raised that number to 71.
The reopened building will be part of a busy run of village and park district events this season:
The pool remains the biggest unfinished piece. The 2023 plan was built around a new 50-meter pool, an updated children's aquatic area, and more green space for swimmers. The new bathhouse that took over the old building's original job is going up next to it. When both open, Recreation Park will have the layout the board chose in August 2024: the 1937 building serving as a community center, with a new building handling the pool.
Many of my clients have spent years at Recreation Park, at Frontier Days, at the old pool, or picking up a preschooler at the door on Miner Street. A building like this carries a lot of a town's memories. If you're weighing a move, thinking about downsizing from a longtime home, or helping a parent plan what's next, I'd be glad to sit down and talk it through with you, close to the places you already know. Sharon Lynch is always happy to hear from neighbors. Let's Connect.
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