On the 1500 block of North Larrabee, land that sat without a use from 2001 until this summer is now a finished park. Its playgrounds, lighting, trees and dog runs are all in place. Its name is still a number, and it has no programming yet.
The Chicago Park District calls it Park No. 598. It opened in August 2026, and the ribbon cutting took place the week of August 31. The construction is done. Everything that gives a park its identity is still open, and nearby residents have formal ways to shape it.
Twenty-five years between the last class and the first dog
The site has had a longer gap between uses than almost any public ground in the area. According to Block Club Chicago's 2024 report, the parcel was home to Cooley High before Near North High School opened there in fall 1979. Screenwriter Eric Monte made Cooley famous with his 1975 film of the same name. The Chicago Reader gives the school's full name as Edwin G. Cooley Vocational High School and Upper Grade Center.
After that, the timeline moved slowly:
- 1978: Chicago Public Schools closes Cooley High.
- Fall 1979: Near North High School opens on the site.
- 2001: Near North closes, and the land goes back to the Chicago Housing Authority.
- May 2019: The CHA transfers the site to the Park District to be turned into a park.
- October 2024: Construction begins. At the groundbreaking, Ald. Walter Burnett pointed to outdoor recreation, exercise, a place for neighbors to gather and a dog park as what the site would bring.
- August 2026: The park opens. The Park District had originally aimed to finish construction by the end of 2025.
That is more than seven years from transfer to opening, and roughly 25 years from the last school year to the first visitors. The Park District's August announcement credits $4.4 million in TIF funding and a $250,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the state economic development agency. Bear Construction LLC won the construction contract.
What the four acres actually hold
The Park District's description shows a park designed more for walking and lingering than for organized sports. Of the 4.01 acres, 1.68 are a single open central lawn. That is about 42 percent of the site, with no ball field or court on it.
| Feature | What the Park District lists |
|---|---|
| Central lawn | 1.68 acres, plus an aspen grove |
| Walking path | 0.2 miles |
| Additional pathways | 0.42 miles, with light poles, seat walls, benches and picnic tables |
| Playground | Separate play spaces for ages 2–5 and 5–12 |
| Adult fitness area | More than 20 workout routines, instructional signage, QR-code app access |
| Plaza | Decorative pavers, shade structure with accent lighting |
| Dog-friendly area | Separate large-dog and small-dog sections, pet-bowl fountains, artificial turf mounds, trees |
| Plantings | 95 shade trees, more than 200 shrubs, perennial beds |
The lighting matters most in November. Pathway light poles and a lit plaza mean the 0.42 miles of paths stay usable after the early sunsets of standard time, and that is when a weekday dog walk gets hard to fit in. The aspen grove and 95 young shade trees are going into their first winter. This spring, the park will look different from the park that opened in August.
The dog area is the feature that turns the park into a habit. A Park District spokesperson told Block Club in 2024 that the design came from community feedback and the local park advisory council, and that the run would include both concrete and artificial turf surfaces. The Park District lists the Park No. 598 Dog Friendly Area at 1500 N. Larrabee. It is the closest of the city's official dog areas to Old Town's west side, and the others nearby are at Ward Park on Kingsbury and Walsh Park on Ashland.
The dog area runs on the calendar year
A new dog area brings rules many owners have never had to deal with, and a deadline is coming up. Under the Park District's Dog Friendly Area rules, every dog in an official DFA needs a permit and tag. The Cook County Department of Animal and Rabies Control requires them.
- Cost: $10 per dog, issued by a participating veterinarian.
- What the vet needs to see: a current City of Chicago dog license or proof of rabies vaccination, a completed permit application, a fecal test for parasites, and vaccinations for distemper, hepatitis, parainfluenza, parvovirus, bordetella and leptospirosis.
- Validity: January 1 through December 31.
- Penalty: a fine of up to $500 for using a DFA without a permit.
- House rules: dogs leashed going in and out, no more than three dogs per person, no food inside, and no puppies under four months.
The calendar-year term catches people off guard. Anyone who got a tag after the park opened in August holds a 2026 permit that runs only through December 31, which works out to about five months of use. Under the same January-through-December term, a new permit year begins January 1. Good Vets Old Town, at 1565 N. LaSalle Dr., is on the Park District's list of participating veterinarians. This is a summary of public rules, not legal advice. Check the Park District's current requirements and your veterinarian's process before you rely on them.
The parts still unclaimed
The name is the most obvious thing left open. As Block Club explained, "No. 598" is a placeholder. A new park gets the number matching the size of the city's park inventory when it is added, and Chicagoans can submit formal proposals to rename it. The Park District's naming and renaming procedures require a written request, and its Board reviews requests in phases. No naming proposal for this park has surfaced publicly, so the field is open.
Programming is open in the same way. The Park District has not listed fall or winter events at the park. The park is assigned to the Stanton Park Advisory Council, which meets the third Tuesday of each month from 6 to 7 p.m. and can be reached at [email protected]. On the 2026 calendar, the next two meetings fall on November 17 and December 15. Advisory council input helped shape this park's design in the first place, according to the spokesperson's comments to Block Club, and the same group is now the formal channel for deciding how it gets used.
The other long-empty address, three blocks east
Park No. 598 is one of two long-vacant parcels on Old Town's west side that got a future this fall. The second is the former Treasure Island at 1639 N. Wells St. Block Club reported that Whole Foods Market signed a lease there. Ald. Brian Hopkins announced it on August 31, and the space had gone without a grocery tenant since Treasure Island closed in 2018. Hopkins had required developer Fern Hill to find a grocer for the site as part of the compromise over its redevelopment near North Avenue and LaSalle Drive.
"Old Town residents have consistently emphasized the importance of returning a full-service grocery store to this location," Ray Clark, president of the Old Town Triangle Association, said in a statement quoted by Block Club.
Unlike the park, which is built and open, the grocery store so far exists only as a signed lease. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that no opening date had been set. As of the October 24, 2026 update to the city's building permits dataset, the newest permit issued for 1639 N. Wells was a January 2021 electrical permit for parking-lot security cameras. When a Whole Foods construction permit appears in that dataset, it will be the first public record that construction is moving forward.
Two dates on Wells before the tags expire
Park No. 598 is a short walk from the Wells Street events that close out the year. The Old Town Merchants & Residents Association lists Small Business Saturday for November 28. The Holiday Tree Lighting is Thursday, December 3, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Burton Place Plaza, 1447 N. Wells St. For more of the corridor, our Old Town neighborhood guide and our late-summer look at the Wells Street reshuffle follow how the street has changed this year.
A four-acre lawn and dog run at the end of the block, along with a grocery lease a few doors down, change how a home near Larrabee or Wells should be described to the next buyer, and I write those descriptions myself. If you live nearby and want to talk through what the new park means for your building, Cadey O'Leary Collection is glad to hear from you. Work with Cadey and start the conversation.
