Riverview Park was established in 1904 by William Schmidt, on the grounds of his private
skeet shooting range. The Schmidt family owned and operated the park for its entire lifetime.
Bill Haywood, leader of
Industrial Workers of the World, once spoke at the park to a crowd of almost 80,000 people. Enduring racially motivated myths described the park's "seedy" atmosphere in the 1950s and 1960s as it became more integrated between races. Contemporaneous articles in black publications such as
The Chicago Defender described black patrons being subject to latent and overt racism. The most overt was a longstanding
dunk tank attraction officially named "African Dip" and later shortened to "Dip", but often referred to by patrons as "Dunk the Nigger". In the 1950s, the
NAACP and Chicago newspaper columnist
Mike Royko successfully lobbied to shut it down.
DePaul College Prep, dental equipment manufacturer Hu-Friedy Manufacturing, and Richard Clark Park of the
Chicago Park District. Many items from Riverview Park, as well as paintings of the park, were displayed at the Riverview Tavern from 2005 to 2018. The park's carousel, the only ride from the park to be relocated elsewhere, continues to operate at
Six Flags Over Georgia today. ==Rides and attractions==