63rd Street Beach sits inside Jackson Park, on land shaped by Frederick Law Olmsted's original design for the park and later formalized as protected lakefront under the 1909 Plan of Chicago. Long before anyone called it "Bongo Beach," it was already one of the South Side's great public gathering places.
A Paved Beach
As early as 1888, this stretch of shoreline was a paved beach built from granite blocks — one of the earliest developed public beaches on the South Side lakefront.
The Bathing Pavilion Is Built
A bathing house was constructed next to the beach, giving the site the Mediterranean Revival building that still anchors it today.
The Drum Circle Begins
Drummers began gathering at 63rd Street Beach, building a circle so consistent — nearly every warm day, for decades — that it became a defining feature of the beach itself. Longtime Woodlawn residents trace the tradition back roughly fifty years.
The Pavilion Is Restored
The Chicago Park District renovated the historic 1919 pavilion, which continues to operate today as the 63rd Street Beach House.
A Community-Shaped Redesign
When Lake Shore Drive was rebuilt, the original plan for this stretch called for a concrete step wall and turf-and-tree landscaping. Concerned about the loss of the beach's historic character, a local alderman convened an Advisory Group of more than thirty community organizations. Working with landscape architect Terry Guen Design Associates, that group helped shape a native dune-grassland design instead — the look of the beach you see today. When some of that turf was replaced with native plantings in 2010, residents pushed back, saying the lawn areas were valued social gathering space; the Park District restored the turf in response. It's a direct precedent for what an organized, engaged community can do here.
Gated Parking, and a Fight to Stay
In July 2025, the Park District installed a new gated parking system at the Beach House lot, raising hourly rates from $2 to just over $4 — and, in the process, pushing the drum circle out of its longtime spot. Park District Superintendent Carlos Ramirez-Rosa pointed to safety concerns, including a June 2024 shooting that injured three people, and to unauthorized vendors, as reasons for the changes.
5th Ward Alderman Desmon Yancy has said he'd like to see a permanent installation memorializing the drummers' contributions, along with an annual ceremony opening the beach season and efforts to recruit and train a new generation of drummers.
Why This Council Exists
The 63rd Street Bongo Beach Park Advisory Council is a Ras Tafari Inc. community initiative organized to help carry that momentum forward — supporting the drummers, documenting the beach's history, and building year-round community programming, in partnership with the Jackson Park Advisory Council, which holds the Chicago Park District's registered advisory council role for Jackson Park as a whole. For us, this work also connects directly to Rastafari Nyabinghi drumming tradition, carried forward through SelassieFest and Ras Tafari Inc.'s broader work preserving Caribbean and African Diaspora culture in Chicago.
- Block Club Chicago, "63rd Street Beach Drummers, A Woodlawn Staple For Over 50 Years, Shut Out Of Longtime Space", August 2025
- Jackson Park Advisory Council, jacksonparkadvisorycouncil.org
- Landscape Performance Series, 63rd Street Beach case study brief
- ABC7 Chicago, "63rd Street Beach drum circle has been creating community through music," 2018