Suburban Stadiums: Tower Road Beach

Each week in Suburban Stadiums, Winnetka and Wilmette Patch will feature a different local recreational facility, from fitness centers to neighborhood parks. We’ll dive into its history, list what programs it has to offer and provide a calendar of major events.

TOWER ROAD PARK AND BEACH

As one of five waterfront parks in Winnetka, Tower Road Beach plays host to a number of events during the summer and provides people with another option for recreational swimming.

Facility and History: The land for Tower Road Park came under the control of the Winnetka Park District with a 1946 property acquisition. The 3.75 acres were purchased from Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas J. Conrad for $80,000, according to records.

Since that initial purchase, the Park District has kept Tower Road Beach mainly a swimming beach. The park has a picnic shelter and beach house equipped with restrooms, showers and concessions. The beach house was built about 15 years ago.

Among the amenities are a volleyball court and two playgrounds, one each for older and younger children.

“Other than improving the playgrounds--they were improved just a few years back to keep the water and spray features up to date--that facility hasn’t really changed,” said Lee Volpe, superintendent of recreation for the Winnetka Park District.

The Park District did some work to the beach at the beginning of the summer to bring in new, fluffier sand.

Activities: While the Park District doesn’t do any sort of programming at Tower Road Beach–primarily because there is no large indoor building–summer concerts and events are what bring large numbers of people to the beach.

“We basically use it just as a swimming beach,” Volpe said. "We do have a few special events down there and some of the events are related to the swimming season.”

The annual Water Carnival attracts a lot of families to play water games and prizes are given away to participating children.

The Family Camp Out, scheduled for Aug. 6, gives people a chance to bring their tents down and set them up all over the beach. The Park District provides some grills and people can cook out during the evening. This year the event has been paired with a movie night that will be showing Toy Story 3.

Calendar:

July 22: Winnetka Parks Foundation’s Party on the Pier

July 31: Water Carnival

Aug. 6: Movie Night on the Beach (Toy Story 3) and Family Camp Out

Aug. 7: Summer Concert featuring SODA