Two parks that will honor Naperville’s traditions of horseback riding and polo are coming to the city next year.
Fairlane Farms Park and Polo Club Park will be part of the new Naperville Polo Club subdivision off 119th Street, recognizing the Kuhn family’s contributions to the area, which can be traced over 100 years.
Kuhn family teaches Naperville locals to horseback ride
“We had my father’s side and my mother’s side come to the confluence of Naperville… my father’s side arrived in Wheaton from Germany through Pennsylvania, I think (in the) 1870s, and my grandfather came down in 1910,” said sixth-generation Naperville resident Dick Kuhn.
In June 1953, Kuhn’s parents, Walt and Shirley, leased a farm St. Procopius Abbey on College Road, where Shirley would teach horseback riding lessons. Kuhn’s mother attended Stephens College, where she learned chemistry and horseback riding.
After eight years at the farm on College Road, the Kuhn family relocated its stable.
“(My parents) bought a gentleman’s farm on Hobson Road, called it Fairlane Farms,” Kuhn said. “Then they bought 90 acres just to the west.”
With the help of Kuhn and his siblings, Daniel, John, and Cathy, Shirley began teaching horseback riding lessons at Fairlane.
“(My mother’s) dream was to start a riding stable,” said Kuhn. “So in 1962, the 90 acres, they converted that from cattle and corn to a riding stable, and we called it ‘Fairlane.’ But then we made it into a full-board stable… We all taught riding, we trained them, we boarded horses for the public. My mother taught Wheaton School District, Naperville School District, the (Naperville) Park District. We’d have people in and out of our driveway and then private lessons.”
Polo scene emerges in Naperville thanks to the Kuhn family
The Kuhn family’s contributions to the area did not stop with just horseback riding. After taking lessons in Oak Brook, Walt – a farmer and concrete pourer by trade – introduced Kuhn, his brothers, and eventually Naperville locals to polo.
“My dad always felt that everyone should be able to play polo,” Kuhn said. “You don’t have to have millions of dollars to play, and that’s why he got put into the Polo Hall of Fame, it was because of that. He always had ran youth polo.”
Due to the construction of 75th Street, the Kuhn family moved its polo matches from Fairlane Farms to the east side of Green Road, between 75th Street and Hobson Road.
“We were going to lose the forest preserve… we mowed and maintained (the Green Road) polo fields for many years.”
But once again, the polo matches were relocated.
“The public said, ‘We want soccer and dogs, no more polo.’ John Green, my brother, and three of our buddies, we bought the John Case Farm on 119th (Street) that was 40 acres,” said Kuhn. “Then two years later we bought Burkett’s right across the street in the forest preserve. So we ended up with 120 acres. My mother kept time and score, and my dad mowed the fields and did goal judging.”
New housing development on former polo grounds
The decades of horseback riding and polo history in Naperville started by the Kuhn family led to the naming of Fairlane Farms Park and Polo Club Park. Both will be a part of the 110-acre subdivision in south Naperville on the former polo grounds.
Developer Pulte Group Inc. contributed land for the parks as part of the Naperville Land Cash Ordinance, which mandates developers provide parks or the equivalent funds to provide parks to the city.
The 6-acre Fairlane Farms Park will consist of two natural turf multipurpose fields, and the 2-acre Polo Club Park will feature a playground, shelter, site furnishings, and landscaping.
Naperville Park District Project Manager Peggy Motta said both parks will open in 2025.
When Kuhn heard the park district was planning on honoring the history his family helped to create, he said he felt “extremely proud.”
“It’s I think in honor of all that my parents did for the riding community,” Kuhn said. “I think that my parents were visionaries and just trying to feed us and make a living. But my gosh, they did it with so much fun.”
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