Palmisano Park at Open House Chicago

Henry Palmisano Park was originally a privately-owned, 380-foot deep limestone quarry that opened in 1836 by the Illinois Stone and Lime Company. It was later sold and converted into a landfill for construction waste for the City of Chicago from the 1970s until 1999. As a joint project between three City of Chicago agencies, the 27-acre site was transformed into an active and educationally focused environmental park in 2009. Palmisano Park includes fully accessible nature trails, wetland habitat, native plantings, recycled materials, bird and fish habitats, bioretention areas and a hill known by locals as "Mt. Bridgeport." Visitors can walk and explore on their own, and there will be short tours offered by the conservation nonprofit Openlands and landscape architect Site Design Group.