Parks in Chicago
Parks in Chicago include open spaces and facilities, developed and managed by the
History
In 1836, a year before Chicago was incorporated,[4] the Board of Canal Commissioners held public auctions for the city's first lots. Foresighted citizens[who?], who wanted the Lake Michigan lakefront kept as public open space, convinced the commissioners to designate two lots as public area. The land east of Michigan Avenue between Madison Street and Park Row (11th Street) was designated "Public Ground—A Common to Remain Forever Open, Clear and Free of Any Buildings, or Other Obstruction, whatever." This lot was soon expanded to Randolph Street, and it was officially named Lake Park in 1847.[5] It was renamed Grant Park in 1901. A second parcel, west of Michigan Avenue between Randolph and Washington Streets, was designated Dearborn Park.
As Chicago grew, demand increased for public spaces, but the Chicago Common Council did little to address these requests. Instead, real estate investors realized that small public squares could increase the value of their property. In 1842,
Chicago's second large-scale allocation of parkland came in 1860, when a large section of the City Cemetery was re-designated as a park. This was due to concerns led by John Henry Rauch about the possible public health impact of having a large cemetery on the lake. This new park was also named Lake Park; however, due to confusion over its name, it was renamed to Lincoln Park in 1865, in honor of the recently deceased President. Slowly, all of the graves were moved from the cemetery, greatly expanding the park.[fn 1]
In 1891, J. Frank Foster became the superintendent of the south Chicago park system. He advocated the spreading out of parks into working-class neighborhoods. These generally smaller parks would nonetheless be filled with playing fields and other facilities particularly 'field house' buildings. These facilities would provide all manner of recreation space and services to people of the surrounding neighborhoods. Olmstead's sons, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and John Charles Olmsted, designed many of the early neighborhood parks, and these ideas for neighborhood parks influenced national ideas of park design and programming.[6]
Facilities
The Chicago Park District manages 220 facilities in 570 parks covering more than 7,600 acres (3,100 ha) of land throughout the city.[7] This extensive network of parks also includes nine lakefront harbors over 24 miles (39 km) of lakefront, rendering the Chicago Park District the nation's largest municipal harbor system, along with 31 beaches, 17 historic lagoons, 86 pools, 90 playgrounds, 90 gardens, 66 fitness centers, nine ice skating rinks, 10 museums, a zoological park, and two plant conservatories.[7][8]
The Chicago Park District also maintains many special use facilities for activities such as golfing, boating, boxing, skating and baseball, as well as a number of specialty parks devoted entirely to dogs.
Architecture
The dominant theme in many of Chicago's park fieldhouses are variants of either
Similar to other areas of Chicago's built environment, a sizeable number of structures in Chicago's Parks are of exceptional architectural value.
Forest preserves
The green-space afforded by Chicago's parks is supplemented by the
List of parks
Notable parks
- Burnham Park - 598 acres (242 ha); runs along the Lakefront for much of the South Side connecting Jackson Park with Grant Park
- Calumet Park - 200 acres (81 ha); shares a border with the State of Indiana, and is also located on the lake.
- Columbus Park - 144 acres (58 ha); on the far west side of Chicago, considered one of the 150 Great Places in Illinois
- Douglass (Anna and Frederick) Park - 173 acres (70 ha) and named after Frederick Douglass and his wife Anna Murray Douglass, it is Southwest of downtown.
- Garfield Park- 185 acres (75 ha); this west side park contains a grand conservatory and lagoon
- Lollapoloozaand others.
- Ignace Paderewski that led to Poland regaining its independence after the First World War.
- Jackson Park - 500 acres (200 ha); located on the south side of the city on Lake Michigan, this park is famous for its role in the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.
- Lincoln Park - 1,200 acres (490 ha); Chicago's largest city park. Located north of The Loop, this is one of the more distinctive parks in terms of geography, because while it is centrally located in the Lincoln Park community area it spans many different neighborhoods throughout the north side as it is nestled between Lake Shore Drive and Lake Michigan.
- Marquette Park - 300 acres (120 ha); the largest park in southwest Chicago, it has a golf course and many other attractions
- Millennium Park - 24.5 acres (9.9 ha); Chicago's newest marquee park, opened in 2004, just north of the Art Institute of Chicago in Grant Park.
- Washington Park - 372 acres (151 ha); located on the south side, it was the proposed location for the 2016 Summer OlympicsStadium.
Arts Partners in Residence
Members of the Arts Partners provide quality[citation needed] cultural content to the parks of Chicago in exchange for the use of space within the park district. These Arts Partners include nationally recognized arts organizations[citation needed] serving park patrons and citizens of the public.
- Albany Park Theater Project (Eugene Field Park)
- Beacon Street Gallery and Theater (Clarendon Community Center)
- Billy Goat Experimental Theatre Company (Broadway Armory)
- Chicago Dance Medium (Seward)
- Chicago Moving Company (Hamlin)
- Chicago Swordplay Guild (Pulaski Park)
- Free Street Programs (Pulaski Park)
- K-Theory(LaFollette)
- Kuumba Lynx (Clarendon Community Center)
- Peace Museum (Garfield Park)
- Pros Arts Studio (Dvorak Park)
- Puerto Rican Arts Alliance (Humboldt Park)
- Zephyr Dance Company (Holstein).
Gallery
-
Buckingham Fountain, Grant Park -
Flagstone steps inPortage Park -
Osaka Japanese Garden in Jackson Park -
-
Jefferson Parkwith a view of the fieldhouse designed by Clarence Hatzfeld -
Lincoln Park in winter -
Millennium Park -
Montrose Beach
See also
- Chicago beaches
Notes
- ^ One grave, the Couch Tomb, was never removed from the site and serves as a reminder of the park's past.
References
- ^ "City Park Facts: Total Parkland as Percent of City Land Area, FY 2011". The Trust for Public Land, Center for City Park Excellence. November 2012. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
- ^ a b "History of Chicago's Parks | Chicago Park District".
- ^ "City Park Facts". The Trust for Public Land, Center for City Park Excellence. June 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-19.
- ^ Macaluso, pp. 12–13
- ^ Gilfoyle, pp. 3–4
- ^ "Chicago's Neighborhood Parks". WTTW. 2016-02-27. Retrieved 2019-07-03.
- ^ a b c "Parks & Facilities". Chicago Park District. Archived from the original on 2007-10-09. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
- ^ "Harbors". Chicago Park District. Archived from the original on 2008-07-19. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
- ^ "Arts Partners in Residence". Chicago Park District. Archived from the original on 2008-05-12. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
- ^ "Events". Chicago Park District. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
- ^ "Concerts in the Parks". Chicago Park District. Archived from the original on 2005-12-01. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
- ^ "Calendar". Chicago Park District. Archived from the original on 2006-03-20. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
- ISBN 978-0738552293. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
Bibliography
- Gilfoyle, Timothy J. (2006). Millennium Park: Creating a Chicago Landmark. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-29349-3.
- Macaluso, Tony; Julia S. Bachrach & Neal Samors (2009). Sounds of Chicago's Lakefront: A Celebration Of The Grant Park Music Festival. Chicago's Book Press. ISBN 978-0-9797892-6-7.
- Fisher, Colin (2015). Urban Green: Nature, Recreation, and the Working Class in Industrial Chicago. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-4696-1995-8.
- Rand McNally "Chicago & Cook County StreetFinder", 1996.
External links
