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Oriole Park takes its name from the surrounding subdivision in the Norwood Park Community Area. As late as 1930, it was a sparsely-settled, semi-rural area.  Lying a mile from the Northwestern Railway's Norwood Park station, the neighborhood began to fill with single-family homes in the 1920s, when newly-affordable automobiles allowed middle-class families to move further out. Oriole Park was created by the Edison Park District, one of 22 independent park boards consolidated into the ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ in 1934.  Several years before the consolidation, a committee of the 77th Avenue Improvement Club urged the Edison Park District to create a playground along Oriole Avenue.  The local park district purchased the land in mid-1931.  In 1932, the Edison Park District vacated an adjacent alley, bringing the park to 2.29 acres.  The Edison Park District considered constructing a softball field on the property, but made few improvements to the swampy site.  Still, local children used the new park enough to prompt a neighboring farmer to ask that a fence be erected to prevent stray baseballs from ruining his crops.  In 1934, the park became part of the ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ’s portfolio after the 22 park districts were consolidated. Not long after the 1934 transfer to the ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ, a softball diamond and a playground were installed at Oriole Park.  After World War II, the ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ added more than 16 acres to the park from 1946 until 1951 in anticipation of increased population expected because of construction of the Northwest Highway. For a time, the Park District and the Chicago Board of Education provided joint programming at the park and the adjacent Oriole Park School.  This co-operative relationship ended in the early 1970s, when a large fieldhouse was constructed in the park. During the 1990s, the park received a new soft surface playground and an interactive waterplay area.