South Elgin’s Tredup Park reopens with new zip line, playground after $1.2M upgrade

Improvements to South Elgin’s Ralph E. Tredup Park, including a zip line, a picnic shelter, a concrete ping-pong table and garden plots, were unveiled at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday, Sept. 21.

The village spent $1.2 million at the venue, adding playground equipment for children 5-12 featuring ADA-accessible surfacing, swings, climbing features, spinners and a game table, South Elgin spokesperson Craig Pierce said.

A communication board, new landscaping and trail connection linking Arlington Lane also are now part of the 999 S. Lancaster Circle facility, he said.

“Beyond that, a large percentage of the park remains open with maintained green space that’s ideal for flying kites, after-school ballgames, tossing a Frisbee, kicking a soccer ball and other recreation,” Pierce said.

South Elgin funded the work with a $600,000 Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development Grant from the state and $600,000 from its Parks and Recreation Department budget.

Tredup Park is divided along the 900 block of South Lancaster Circle, just south of Valley Forge Avenue, with both sides together comprising nearly 17 acres, Pierce said. It was built in conjunction with the adjoining neighborhood in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he said.

“The developer installed a small playground in 2001, which was replaced in two phases with a more robust park in 2006 and 2010,” Pierce said.

The park was named after Ralph Tredup, who was instrumental in documenting the history of South Elgin. He wrote three books, including “South Elgin — 150 Years of Heritage,” and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles.

“His book on South Elgin remains a wealth of insights and knowledge about the village’s history and was compiled through his painstaking collection of news clippings, meeting minutes and other research,” Pierce said. “Ralph also wrote a weekly column for the South Elgin Shopper newspaper and covered everything from local sports to village history.”

Tredup served on South Elgin’s Bicentennial Commission, helping to create a time capsule and plan the village’s celebration of the nation’s 200th anniversary, he said. That commission eventually became the Heritage Commission, and Tredup was one of its founding members.

From 1978 through the 1980s and ’90s, Tredup served as the unofficial photographer for South Elgin’s police and fire departments, Pierce added. He died in September 1998 at the age of 79.

Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The (Elgin) Courier-News.