Neighborhood kids considered Olson Rug Park their own private playground, much superior to the city’s Kocziusko Park. The waterfall was particularly popular.

The Olson Rug Factory designed the Waterfall Park as a tie-in to its showroom, but commercially-driven or not, the mystical site became a major attraction for Chicagoans with kids.

The decorations were just one of several displays Olson commissioned for the 22-acre park next to his factory and showroom at Pulaski and Diversey Avenue beginning in 1936. The park — which ...

At the ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday, Barney explained that while growing up in Chicago she vividly remembers the neighborhood’s long-gone Olson Rug Park and waterfall.

Open daily from 8 a.m. until midnight, the facility, known most commonly as “Olson Falls,” closed for keeps 1978, waterfalls and all.