In 1865, Henry W. Austin (1828-1889) purchased 280 acres of poorly-drained prairie land in Cicero Township. Within the next few years, Austin subdivided the area, laid out streets, and planted trees, calling the new development Austinville. Twenty years later, in December 1885, Henry Austin and his wife Martha donated three large lots in what was by then the Town of Cicero for use as a public park. The city transferred Austin Park to the Chicago Park District in 1959. By this time, the lagoon had deteriorated, and the park district soon filled in the eastern section. At the lagoon's west end, the park district transformed the boys' and girls' wading pools into a wading pool and spray pool, and constructed a new changing facility. In 1992, the park district installed a new soft surface playground where the eastern portion of the lagoon once lay.