The surest sign of spring is opening day for Lake Bluff Youth Baseball Association, when 250 ball players and triple that number of fans descend on Artesian Park. It’s a great time to reflect on the park’s long, interesting history
In 1904, Artesian Lake was drained and the dam demolished when the railroad companies built an underpass for a new (now long gone) electric trolley line. What happened next probably made sense at the time, but in retrospect it stinks for anyone who lived nearby: From the early 1900s to 1936 the site was the village garbage dump. The photo at the top of this newsletter shows garbage being emptied on one of the dump’s last days in 1936.
Fortunately, soon after that photo was taken, the village relocated the garbage dump, having gifted the land to the Lake Bluff Park District, which converted the site to a park. Over the decades since then, Artesian Park has hosted carnivals, field days, school games, summer camps, special events (including an occasional helicopter landing) and more. It has a playground, an ice rink in winter, and a wooded area that is converted into a haunted forest at Halloween.
And it is the village’s home base for ball games. Almost every evening in the spring and summer the park is packed with baseball players and their fans, and later again at night with adult softball games.
The ball fields and field house are named for prominent villagers, including:
Weshinsky Field : Floyd Weshinskey was a U.S. Navy veteran who served for three-plus years in World War II. After the war, he got a job as a teacher in Lake Bluff, pursued an advanced degree at Northwestern University’s Graduate School, and climbed the District 65 administration ranks. He was superintendent from 1958 to 1978. He died in 2008.
Troyer Field: Bob Troyer was involved in youth baseball 60 years ago and was a past president of the LBYBA. Troyer taught mathematics at Lake Forest College from 1968 to 1994 and was an avid racquetball player who was inducted into the hall of fame of the Illinois State Racquetball Association in 2016. He lives in Lake Bluff and still supports LBYBA.
Rosenthal Field: Martin R. Rosenthal was a past treasurer, coach, manager and commissioner of the baseball association. He was killed in a tragic accident when the car he was driving was hit by another vehicle on December 29, 1976. The accident also took the lives of the passengers in his car, his Lake Bluff friends Norman and Nancy Ellett, and it critically injured his wife, Babette, who survived and raised the Rosenthal boys.
Evert Field House was named for Tom Evert, who began working for the Lake Bluff Park District in 1933 and was superintendent from 1936 until he retired in 1973. Evert served overseas in World War II and was a life member and past commander of American Legion Post 510. He also was chief ranger of the Lake County Forest Preserve District, a member of the Lake Bluff Fire Department for 36 years and fire chief for 20 years, and he was very involved with the 4th of July celebrations in Lake Bluff, planning and executing the fireworks displays after the parade (back when Lake Bluff did 4th of July fireworks). He is also credited with building the field house with the help of volunteers from the fire department and Post 510 (the facility was re-built in 1989).