The City of Chicago acquired the land for Chestnut Park in 1958, and transferred the property to the Chicago Park District the following year. Officially designated Chestnut Park in 1973, the site was one of a number of park properties named for trees and plants at this time. Chestnuts take the form of both trees and shrubs. Five of the 14 chestnut species are native to North America. The American Chestnut, the "spreading chestnut tree" of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, The Village Blacksmith, once grew to a height of 100 feet, with a broad, rounded crown. Formerly prominent in the forests of the eastern United States and southeastern Canada, the American Chestnut is now rarely seen due to chestnut blight.