My favorite indoor pool. I visited all 29 Chicago indoor pools Love swimming into to the sun, The plus emerging from the water able to see The Willis tower in my eyesight read more

I have only walked the park. There is a hot dog stand outside that's pretty busy. Nice grounds. read more

Eckhart Park - Chicago Park District - Parks Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Great place for family, tons of classes to offer, the pool is clean and enjoyable, staff is a little uptight, except the person at the reception, he was amazing and very nice, but overall the place is awesome to spend time with family read more

fitness center online states 9am to 7:30, and the receipt says 6:45 to 8pm, both of which would allow me to go after work. Posted signage is actually for 9 am-6:45. So I bought a month and cannot use it. Very frustrating read more

For the price, swimming pool is nice! Have only gone once but there's enough space for you to lap swim with a friend and not feel like you're swimming with another person or group. The lap swim times aren't the best so make sure you check online before going. I also didn't trust putting my stuff in the locker room haha. Honestly 4 stars because it's a clean pool with lifeguards and indoors which is great in the winter. I will say one end of the pool is literally so shallow that I am often scared to flip turn on that side. They do have a deeper end with diving blocks though! read more

This park is wonderful and the park's staff are outstanding. We have had several toddler swimming classes here and the staff are the best. Open swim is fun. The park outside has a water feature, plenty of stuff to climb on, and is awesome for kids. Parking can be sparse, but that's because it is a outstanding park in a great part of the City. read more

Very big, spacious park in West Town. Located at Chicago Avenue and Noble. Ample street parking, two decent baseball/softball/kickball fields. Giant fieldhouse. Bball hoops, lots of big trees for shade...plently of doggies running around making the world happy, a big playground for the kiddies...really a great spot to waste a day being in the sun :) Neighborhood is getting better. Swim Cafe nearby, West Town Tavern... read more

As a Chicago public school teacher I do my best to support other Chicago establishments and public park institutions. I had previously checked the schedule and was aware it was adult swim time until 3:45pm. It was already 3:20 and I wanted some time alone before time with the children. My children were on the bench, relaxed and were waiting for their pool time. I got them settled and went to rinse off to abide by pool rules. When I was about to get in, as an adult for the adult swim I was met with a disagreeable life guard who stated "I'm going to tell you the same thing I told the other lady which is that the pool deck is closing after the adult swim." I'm already aware of this as I grew up on the neighborhood but the disgusting tone with which I was met was unnecessary, unneeded, and unwanted. This was such a negative representation of a park I spent many years at. As a result I decided not to enter and find a pool that is more overall family friendly. read more

This review is just about the pool and changing facilities. As far as swimming options go in Chicago, this one is hard to beat for my money. Not wanting to pay for a fancy gym membership--one of the few pool options in this city--I find Eckhart to be a life saver. YMCA pools are nowhere near where I live or work. For $40 per season, Eckhart gives me pool hours before and after work, a pool that I would consider very clean, and a locker room with plenty of showers and roomy lockers. As a City of Chicago facility, it's understandable that some things aren't always in order. Sometimes there's no soap in the locker room. Sometimes the showers are horribly cold. Sometimes the lone hand/hair dryer doesn't work. The showers are open and don't have curtains. These things feel like only minor issues to me considering I knew exactly what I was paying for when I signed up, which was not a luxury facility but a more-than-competent an clean place to exercise in the pool. People should also know that triathlon season, from spring through summer, tends to get petty crowded during adult lap swim. Patience pays off here--if you wait but five minutes, a spot in a lane will open up. For those interested in specs, the pool is 25 yards long and up to 9 feet deep, with available kickboards, hand paddles, and an on-deck swim clock if you're looking for those kinds of perks. read more

If you're thinking about a membership to the Eckhart Park fitness center, consider what image you want your gym to create. Now, don't lie: I know you've got something in mind. Do you want relaxation above all else--a sauna, big TVs, an atmosphere to make you forget about your cares at work and at home? Are you looking for an environment to emphasize your high-roller corporate lifestyle, with juice bars and personal trainers and beautiful people? If so, Eckhart Park fitness center is not for you. If, on the other hand, you're into feeling low-maintenance, reliving your days at a high-school gymnasium, and finding a place where you can work out without supporting the Exercise Industrial Complex--or, for that matter, if you're pretty out of shape and don't want to feel embarrassed for a workout that consists of 10 minutes on a treadmill and a few arm curls, yet leaves you feeling as if you've run a triathlon--hie thee to this gym. The pool and basketball courts steal the show here; it's always humid, and reverberating with the squeaks and thumps of sneakers hitting the courts. There are two treadmills, two stationary bikes, and three ellipticals, so you'll sometimes have to wait for your machine to open up. Weight machines are basic, and there's not much room to stretch. There are no TVs, just a boombox in the corner. The hours are short--7 am to 8:30 pm on weekdays, and 9:30 am to 4:30 pm on weekends. If none of this bothers you, you'll get a solid, no-frills workout for dirt-cheap prices ($75 up front for 3 months, plus $35 if you opt in to lap swimming). If you're just looking for exercise, with no additional "fitness center perks," you can't beat it. You won't get hassled by personal trainers, be pressured to renew your "contract," or have to avoid that strange class of person who treats workouts as social hour. The locker room is closed on Sundays. When it's open, it's kind of grungy around the corners, and the showers are often chilly. There are a lot of kids running around after their swim classes let out, which could be a plus or a minus depending on your attitude. I think it's a nice break from the strong-man atmosphere at other gyms. You'll want to bring your own lock, as there are none available for rent or purchase. read more

Whatever people, it's not Equinox. They have decent swimming hours, especially when you consider you can go to any other CPD pool for the low low price of $15/month or $40 for three. The lockers are nice and pretty new, and sturdy and functional, so I dont swim in constant fear of having my stuff absconded with. The showers are typical public showers, although they have curtains now, contrary to other reviews. Weirdly they seem to waste a shocking amount of water--in a single visit I saw two sink faucets and one shower left on, full blast, with no one around. It's mostly rundown, especially the gym, but it looks perfectly functional. It's a small room the with the basics, cardio and some strength training machines. There's a separate boxing gym downstairs that has actual rings. The whole place smells a bit dank, but it's an old building with a pool in it, so I'll get over it. There's lots of street parking, free and paid. As for the pool, I don't know about closures, so I can't opine at this point, I'd be annoyed if it were closed for weeks, but the occasional day I can handle. The staff is friendly, and while it's a bunch of 22-year-old kids who don't know that much, they can get you signed up and paid and answer at least questions about their own facilities, if not questions about wider CPD offerings. I totally recommend CPD facilities in general and this one, especially the pool, in particular. read more

Eckhart Park - Chicago Park District - Pool locker room - Parks Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

See all

My dog likes to poop here, play frisbee here, and watch company softball games here. OH YEAH, so do crazy homeless people. I haven't been inside the rec center, but I hear its nice. read more

This is my gym when it's cold. The workout room is basic, but if you work it right, you get a good workout. No frills. Basic. Best of all for me, cheap and a hop skip and a jump from my place. The only downside is that I've noticed alot more people using the workout room now. I need to start utilizing the pool like I do the bathroom when I can't quite wait to get home... Wait.. that sounds WRONG!!! read more

I have only use the pool with my two kids and they love it. they have renovated the lockers and is looking great! awesome job and I hope to have more free time in the summer time to explore what other activities this park offers. p.s. I did notice a boxing class that I might take up. read more

This is a review of the so-called "fitness center" only without any first hand swimming/pool experience. Ask yourself these questions: 1) Do you need access to/are okay with having access to only two treadmills? 2) Do you need access to/are okay with having access to only one bench press? 3) Do you, realistically, need access to #1 and #2 only? 4) Are you willing and/or able to deal with apathetic, incompetent, and rude staff? 5) Are you okay with a facility that keeps hours apparently at random and is very poor about communicating their hours of operation to members? If the answers to #1 - 5 are all "yes," then please sign up for the fitness center because it's a great price. If the answer to any of the above is "no," then keep looking, because at $17 per month it's about $10 too expensive. Yes, there are things other than a treadmill and bench press available, but they are old, and I mean really old, machines, and there's literally like three other weight machines which all have clearly been in use for a very long time. While the cardio machines may be slightly newer, they are extremely low end (even the treadmills) and are, in my humble opinion, not worth using. (I used to work out at the Wabash YMCA in Bronzeville, so I'm not a pretentious high-maintenance gym freak by any means. However, this place falls woefully short on so many criteria it's not even funny.) In addition to being apathetic, rude, and incompetent, some staff members are also racist. This is no joke, I asked one of the staff members if they had lockers and her response was, "Yes, but I wouldn't use them. We have lots of homeless and Black people around here who will steal anything." Let me emphasize that these were the words of one and only one staff member, but this is still my very true personal experience. My suggestion is to save your money and keep looking. read more

You pay 70 dollars for ten weeks of gym use. They have maybe twelve stations to use and it's all out of date stuff but WHO CARES?! There aren't any orange, samsonite suitcases walking around badgering you into buying a tanning package and no mishapen personal trainers (HUGE GUNS, TINY CALVES) yelling at you and absolutely no pressure to look in shape because it is a gym and you are obviously there to get in shape, granted ROUND IS A SHAPE. Watch out for the occasional troll that's, uh, trolling for ass. CHECK OUT THE POOL. read more

I've been swimming here 2 to 3 times a week ever since my 2009 resolution to. I am writing this review solely based on adult lap swim from 7:30 to 8:45pm. I really like this type of Chicago Park District pool. It has all windows on two sides which make it feel less cramped and dimly lit than other pools I have been in. The staff at this pool is friendly and actually seems to be paying some attention to what is going on in the water. The locker room is gross, the bathroom stalls always smell like pee and I cringe when I have forgotten to bring my sandals. For lap swim, this place can get pretty crowded. Earlier in the week is usually busier than later. Once I had to wait until 8:10 to get started. I also feel that on slower nights they are early in asking you to leave. If lap swim is scheduled til 8:45 than I want to swim until 8:44. read more

I just moved to the area at the end of June and decided to start swimming here to attempt to get into shape. For $22 for 3 months, I cannot complain. So yeah it can get crowded, and yeah the locker room is a little nasty, but the pool itself is very clean and I enjoy swimming there. The heater was broken and the water was freezing, but they fixed that and the water is awesome now. I want to start getting up for morning swims, but I can't seem to drag my lazy self out of bed....maybe soon enough I will. read more

This place is an unintentionally funny place. Sometimes I don't even think it's real. My roommates and I moved into the area and looked up places to go exercise. Not immediately or anything- I don't want you to think I'm a gym rat. Anyhow, the Wicker Park gym was way too expensive and reminded me of Cheetah Gym which is one of (my many) personal hells. We then learned that Eckhart Park has a gym and without going in and actually looking at it, we signed up online. I thought this was an exclusive gym because the website said there were limited spots available. This place is far from it. We got to the gym and it's the size of my living room, possibly a little smaller. I walked in and looked at my roommates and said, "NOw what?" It's got a handful of ellipticals, treadmills, one or two bench presses and a few really old weight lifting machines. I typically go to the gym to sit around and watch TV- and NONE of that was going to happen here. I literally got so bored after a half an hour that I walked around to give myself a tour of the building. There is a library kiddy corner to the gym! Walked in and asked them their hours. The librarian looked me dead in the face and said: Monday 10-6 Tuesday 12-8 Wednesday 10-6 Thursday 12-8 Friday and Saturday 9-5 Literally all in one breath. Me, sweaty, looked at her and asked if she had that in print. Got back to the gym, had my roommate spot me on the bench- and then did some squats. Cuz, you know what, why not. There are some redeeming qualities for working out here. Some definitely not. +1 it's so close to my apartment, and no one is ever there. +1 very affordable, and not pretentious one bit. and they offer a few classes. like, boxing or something. +1 the building is actually really cool. Especially the natatorium. +1 because there are no distractions in the gym (besides the boom box in the corner), this might pose a good opportunity to actually get some real fitness in. -1 because there is not enough equipment to actually do anything. read more

Decent park and the pool is nice and big but there are some problems. If you use the pool do not use the lockers. I made this mistake and had mine broken into. Luckily only my cell phone was stolen. It is better to leave your stuff by the side of the pool. The playground is pretty good but one of the slides is broken and they never seem to clean out the water fountain - it has alot of debris. On the plus side they did fix the broken swings. There are also some strange people around sometimes but usually its an interesting mix of people from different walks of life. I haven't used the baseball fields but they are used alot at night - seems to be a very busy league that plays here. read more

Loved the park. Got to come here for the Eckhart sound experiment this last June, and I was blown away by how nice this place was. Great place to sit down, listen to some music, bring your dog, walk around, run around, play sports, etc etc. I'd come here way more often if I actually lived in this area. Very nice place to walk through though. read more

I swim here a several times a week from about 8-8:45am. I gotta say the morning crowd is WAY better than the pm, Morgan C.! I never have to wait for a lane. I've been to the pm or saturday swims and always have to do crunches and push ups till something frees up. I don't like that. It makes me hurt more than necessary the next day. However, the pool itself is VERY clean. I've yet to see a snot/hair tumbleweed blow through my lane as I have in other CPD pools. Yeah the locker rooms are a little grimey and it sucks when the hand dryer (aka hairdryer) goes out in the winter. There's also this little cone duct taped over a hole in the floor in the girls locker room w/ a sign over it that says "Caution...hazardous materials underneath". wtf? hope it's not gas... Still. The kids that work there are super cool and I wouldn't trade me morning sessions there for anything....except maybe a shower stall that doesn't have random hairs all over it. :D read more

Great place to chill and get a veggie hot dog. read more

Eckhart Park - Chicago Park District - Good veggie hot dogs. - Parks Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

See all

I ventured down to Eckhart Pool today. It was only 65 or so outside and too cold for Chase Park so instead of going to my back up indoor pool of Gill I figured lets check out Eckhart. I biked there but I will make sure to take the el next time I go or make sure to go when I am already downtown for something. The locker room is pretty big and there are plenty of places to change for privacy compared to other park locker rooms that I have been in. The lifeguards are super friendly and warned me that the water was pretty warm. Warm is an understatement for the water of the pool today. I did notice that the temp leveled out as I got away from the shallow end. I enjoyed it especially after that long bike ride. The water was very clean and the lifeguards were rising off the pool deck so the deck was also clean. Most of the regulars kept there stuff off to the side. My stuff was in a different side of the pool where they were hosing but they made sure not to get my stuff wet. The pool seemed a little longer then Chase, Gill and Welles Pools but not as big as River and California Pools. I also liked the windows and the way the sun made the water light up. Used the locker room to shower and change after the swim. I hardly noticed anyone in there because of the layout. I will try to get back there on a Saturday after running errands downtown for the afternoon Adult Lap again for sure. read more

Eckhart Park - Chicago Park District - Eckhart Pool - Parks Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

POOL Indoor pool Lanes: 6 Length: 25' Windows: Yes, very bright, nice Cleanliness: Very clean LOCKER ROOMS Cleanliness: Good Warm showers: Yes Water pressure: Average Shower curtains: Some PARKING Easy: No Free: Yes, around the park but pay on street Bike racks: ? OTHER Lifeguard attentiveness: Good Hassles: None Accurate scheduling: Yes Respectfulness of lap swimmers: Great Swimming pattern: Circle swim read more

A nice park overall in a decent part of Chicago. One time they had boxing outside and that was fun to watch. I will come back again soon... thank you, Eckhart. read more

This pool drives me nuts. Here's why: 1) At least three dudes standing around watching you swim under the guise of lifeguarding, shooting the shit, at all times. One of them, when you ask him to turn down music that's too loud for someone underwater, will glare at you expressionless while walking over to complete the request. Uncomfortable! 2) A male staffer WALKED INTO the women's dressing room while I was in there before inquiring whether someone might be indisposed. And, the door to the women's dressing room is always propped wide open. There's a barrier to the dressing area, but you're still walking by a public hallway in a towel from the shower. 3) Unexpected closings. There were the three weeks of sporadic closings to perform an opera. Now it's closed indefinitely for repairs. This information is conveniently posted on flyers in the building for you to discover once you've arrived ready to swim, with little advance notice and no messages online. It gets one star for being cheap. And you get what you pay for. read more

Fantstic pool! Open swim is FREE. There are some fees for lap swimming or exercise classes. It is clean. The building is fantastic. This is one of the only indoor pools that has good air quality. Good staff too. read more

The sticky fingered patrons of Eckhart Park pool will steal anything that isn't nailed down - including ID's out of the box at the pool. Facilities are fine, but don't leave anything unattended for even a moment or it will be stolen immediately. read more

Years ago I thought this place was great, simply because of their tiny library. No one knew that was the place to go for museum passes and the librarians were extremely friendly. Now, I come here to actually play in the park and it's not as great as I first thought it was. This is definitely not little kid friendly like other parks. They've got baby swings, but the actual jungle gym structure has big gaps that a walking toddler could easily fall through. There is often times garbage throughout the wood chips and dog poop in the grass. The only reason I'm giving this place 4 stars is because a lot of nannies and parents will come here earlier in the day, and with other children around, little man doesn't get distracted by garbage or wood chips. Plus, they have a nice track to walk/run around behind the main building. read more

This is my hangout park. I like to visit in the summer and lay out in the sun. The grass is bad, but it's not too crowded. I stay on the east side of the park. Some strange characters hang out on the west side. There's some kind of housing there for marginal people on the west side, so that's where they hang. Nice place. They have a library branch inside the park house, and summer programs for kids. read more

Only reviewing the pool here. Didn't sample the rest of the facilities. It's a park district site and and has that laid-back kind of loosely-run public property feel. To swim laps, you need to sign up in advance for a pass, either over the phone or online. And while $25/month for lap swim is a bit steep, and the showers aren't going to win any awards, what a nice pool! It's a half-cylinder old school glassed-in space with lots of light, generous deck space, starting blocks, and a fairly deep deep end. Plus there are bins of kick boards, pull buoys, and fins you can borrow. Didn't count the lanes but I think 6? My X Sport pool is only 4 lanes without starting blocks, with no boards or buoys, and is nasty as stink. Do you hear me, X Sport?! Gross. Anyway, give Eckhart a try. It's swell. read more

They have an indoor pool that is used year round. The park itself is a nice easy jog-around. It's a small park, but packs a lot to do. As others have said, great fieldhouse. read more

So I am reviewing the pool section of Eckhart Park. It is okay but not grand. I know, what do I expect from a public free pool with teenage life guards,but there are other public free pools that are much better. First off, the pool during free times have a large group of adolescents who don't respect anyone. For work, I take a group of 15+ five and six year olds there once a week. The other children are not weel supervised and the teenage life guards just don't take enough control. Secondly, we went there for three weeks and the water kept getting colder and colder. We finally found out that the heater had been broken for weeks. Thanks for the heads up. One good thing though, one of the teenage lifegaurds took the time to find Pulaski Park for us. He was very nice to do this. Thanks. read more

The indoor facilities are pretty good- the pool and locker room are sanitary, affordable, and well staffed. The exercise equipment in the gym leaves a hell of a lot to be desired, and lots of rather creepy middle aged men hang out there on the regular. The park itself is a nice open space, which is refreshing, but could use more trees and bushes on the sides and on the Eastern end. The baseball diamond is great and a good spot for a game of kickball, but watch your back past dusk. read more

This review is for the park itself...I've never actually been in the facility. Gorgeous, huge park with a few baseball diamonds in the back and a basketball court. This park is in a great location, and it's nice to have a big open space in such a congested area. I've played basketball here and it's nice that they leave it open and turn the lights on at night. read more

I swim at several Chi. Park District pools, but this is the only one where the lap swim is constantly canceled with no notice. This happens all of the time. Usually the Sat. one is canceled for another event. It's fine to have something else, but LET PEOPLE KNOW! Is this really so hard? There is a hotline to call, but it is always out-of-date and the staff and/or management is either too lazy/incompetent/uncaring to update it if there is another Sat. event which will preempt lap swimming. I guess no one is required to take responsibility. One other commentator brings this up, so it's been going on for a long time. There literally is no other pool where this happens. Congrats Eckhart people, you are truly unique. read more

We had our son's first birthday party in the community room and it went great! Melody, the park supervisor, was great working with us to book the room. Nancy and the man on maintenance staff (I'm sorry, I don't have his name!) were so helpful and courteous with us. Our son's party went great and everyone had a wonderful time. Thank you so much Eckhart Park! read more

Fast forward to July 14, 2013. I looked around the website, and, given my previous experience, knew to be tenacious enough to keep looking for the option to sign up until I found it. I paid $42 including a $2 web "convenience" fee. The schedule was listed as starting August 14th. I put it in my calendar and waited impatiently until the day was almost there. On the 11th I decided to go to the park to start trying what I knew would be multiple tries to get my membership card. I called ahead just in case and the park manager answered. I told her I had a swim membership starting 8/14 and needed my card. She interrupted me several times but I eventually managed to get the information out. Then she told me that the membership had started the day I signed up and the rolling memberships had been going on for two years. I knew this not to be true since I had used a membership of one "season" a year and a half before but I didn't bother correcting her. She assured me of their open hours, however, and said I should just come in and get the card because I could've been coming to swim for the past month. She intimated that I should've known that information all along and pretended that things had always been that way. She also tried to defend herself by saying that no one else had had the problem. Most likely many people do get misinformation from the website, but they are unsuccessful at contacting anyone to complain. News for the park district: One person having a problem is a problem. Multiple people having a problem is a big problem. It's your job to fix ALL the problems your customers have with your badly designed and plain non-functional systems for running the park. Fifteen minutes after the phone call I showed up at the park, expecting to find the park manager there doing her job. She was not. I found a guy who was babysitting some kids in a camp program and pulled him away from his job. I'm sure this violates some kind of law, but I honestly don't care since I was lucky to get any kind of service. He issued me a card for the swimming pool but wouldn't date the card with the current date (everything is hand-written, if that gives you some idea of the efficiency of their systems) because it wouldn't match the computer. He called his manager who was "in a meeting". Clearly she was not in a meeting since she was able to talk to me on the phone for 15 minutes. She also refused. She wanted to check that the "season" starting 8/14 was erroneously available for purchase on the website. By that point it was not available on the website any longer. The website seems to change day by day. However, there were "seasons" of pool access available for the previous two seasons (in 2012 when the season system was over "two years ago") still available for purchase. I have included a screenshot of that. She repeated her false assertion that the system had been that way for two years and that I "should have known that already". She later called me back to say that she had sent an email to someone and if that person decided it was a good idea to make an "exception" that they would change the date on my card. I've heard nothing one way or another. On 8/17 I returned to the park with my sad little two month long pool membership with the intention of finally swimming after waiting more than a month. The janitor stopped me and told me that there was a swim meet scheduled. He pointed to the locked door adjacent to the pool (which in all my experience with this park has never once been unlocked) and told me that there was a flyer there saying that the pool would be closed. He told me it had been there for three weeks and looked at me as if I should obviously have known that ahead of time. Obviously since I hadn't been there before (at least since the previous year) I didn't see it. In addition, the door is on the ground level in a corner underneath the stairs that lead to the unlocked main door. It reminds me of the part in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where Ford finds out that the plans for the city to knock down his house have been on "public display" in the locked basement of a public building, behind a sign saying "toxic waste", guarded by a tiger. The general summary of my experience with this park is that the management is completely incompetent to do their jobs, the systems are both non-functional and woefully outdated, misinformation is everywhere and in some cases the information is just plain missing completely. The employees of the park are typically not at their jobs and when they are they behave inappropriately and assume that the people at the park should know how it works without being told, or even despite being told false information. It's a good thing it's cheap because it's cheap for a reason. To be a successful user of this park try to complete your transaction early and often and treat your plans to work out as an option, because to the park district, they are. read more

This review is about the park only - one of the most wide open parks in the City, regular night softball games (two baseball fields), and a direct view of the Hancock (east view) and of the western sunset, unobstructed. There are homeless people at the park, but in my experience they keep to themselves. So many people walking their dogs, playing softball, running, or playing basketball makes it a generally safe place to walk your dog or hang out. It's also very well lit up until 12pm when half of the field lights turn off. read more