South Parks—Jackson and Washington Parks

Chicago Parks System

South Parks, Washington Park and Jackson Park
Life Span: 1869-Present
Location:
Architect: Olmsted, Vaux & Co.

Chicago Evening Post, March 16, 1869

THE SOUTH SIDE PARK.
Reasons for Its Establishment-Over 1,000 Acres of Park and Boulevard.
A handbill, addressed to the voters of South Chicago, Hyde Park and Lake, is in circulation, giving the following arguments for voting for the South Side Park bill on the 23d instant. It reads as follows:

Now Is The Time.
A park can never be had on cheaper terms, or under more favorable aspects than now. A year or two hence the same laud will cost double ite present value. The people are ready for it and demand it.

What It Affords.
This park affords ten miles of direct frontage for residences. It comprises grove, meadow and lake front, to an equal and grand extent. No more favorable ground for a beautiful and varied park can be found in the country.

Its Accessibility.
The South Park is entered very readily from all the South Side drives and avenues. Four great railroads lead past it, and two of them through it. The South Side Steam Dummy Railroad traverses its entire western length. Thus it will be reached in after years by hourly steam trains, at an insignificant cost, and the drive to it and through it will be one of the most delightful to be imagined in city suburban life.

The distance from the “Battery” to the great Central Park of New York city is precisely the same distance as is the South Part from the Court House, but with this advantage in our favor: Central Park has no wide approaches, as in case of the South Park,—no access but by ordinary streets, and three lines of horse cars.

Its Actual Size And Distance.
The South Park, Western Division, commences five and one half miles south from Madison street, and one and one half miles south from the present city limits. It extends south one mile, thence connects with the Eastern Division by a Boulevard 660 feet wide. The Eastern Division extends one mile mile further south—its extreme southern limit being but seven and one-half miles south from the Court House. The Park, including Boulevards, comprise about one thousand acres.

Five And Ten Years Hence.
Within five years hence this Park, though now a considerable distance south of the city, will be just where a Park should be—in the heart of the southern suburbs of Chicago. Ten years hence people will wonder at the thought that this Park was considered too far south. Business will extend south to Twenty-second street before that time, and the line of Douglas Place will be the centre of the finest residence property of the city. So much for this talk about the Park being “too far off.” It is far more accessible now, comparatively, than the New York Central Park.

What It Will Do For Chicago.
It is estimated that many millions of dollars of capital from abroad have been invested in the suburbs of New York city solely on account of the attractions of Central Park. It is a safe estimate to say that fifty millions of dollars will flow to Chicago within the next five years, to be invested in property around and near the parks, more than would come here had we no parks. This amount of capital will enter into the business of the city in all its departments adding greatly to our general prosperity. The Pacific Railroad will be completed this year, and thousands of strangers from foreign ands will visit our city: and the renown which will attach to Chicago, by reason of her great growth and improvements, including her grand system of public Parks, will induce many of them to invest capital here, and also to become citizens. To neglect these Parks,—to refuse to have them, is the reverse of all this.

Its Cost—Who Pays For It?
The park will cost but a trifle compared with great parks in Eastern cities. It is to be paid for by gradual and easy assessment and taxation. The lands benefitted pay for the lands taken, and the large property-holders will pay in taxation for the improvement and maintenance of the park.

Let All Vote For The Park,
Because it is a blessing to all. It will pay for itself at once in increased values to adjacent property. It will aid to draw people to Chicago, as the great and beautiful City of the Lakes. It will keep our wealthy citizens among us. It will give us health, pleasure and prosperity for coming generations. Twenty years hence any man who may oppose this Park will be ashamed to own it. “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.”

The Land Owner, October, 1869

THE SOUTH PARKS.
(See accompanying Cartoon.)
After a very vexatious delay, the Supreme Court has finally seen fit to promulgate its important decision in regard to the validity of the act of the Legislature passed last winter, and subsequently ratified by the people at the polls, authorizing the construction of a park for South Chicago, according to the provisions contained in the bill.

This decision, so long withheld from the public, is favorable to the Park, the bill being sustained by the court. The commissioners are authorized to issue 7 per cent. bonds to an amount not exceeding $2,000,000, and sell said bonds. They shall also file with the county clerk, annually, an estimate not exceeding $300,000, necessary for the payment of interest on the bonds, and for the improvement of said park during the next year; which estimate shall be assessed and included in the general tax warrants, and collected as other taxes upon the the property of said towns. The commissioners are to have control over all roads passing through said parks, and to have general power for the government and regulation of the parks.

The accompanying cartoon shows the exact location of the parks and boulevards, and will be found of much value for reference in the future. There is a beautiful lake-shore drive, for some distance, in the lower park, and the boulevard connecting it with the city are all the most sanguine lovers of horseflesh could desire. Kankakee avenue, henceforth to be called South Park avenue, is soon to be curbed and paved its entire length, and will probably be the most popular route to these great pleasure grounds.

This decision establishes the fact beyond a peradventure, that Chicago will have, at no distant day, the finest system pf parks in the world. Its bearing on real estate is already sensibly felt. Capital is movin forward for investment in a locality where fortunes are to be made—around the parks and adjacent to the grand boulevards.

Had this decision been promulgated two months ago, as it should have been, the stagnation of midsummer would not have come. The commissioners will now go actively at work, and the bonds will soon be issued. Five years hence the prairie below Hyde Park will be transformed into a beautiful garden, filled with trees, grottos, rustic arbors, and perfume from a thousand springing shrubs and plants. We have waited patiently, and our patience will be rewarded.

Chicago Evening Post, February 24, 1871

South Park Map.
A map of the South Parks and Boulevards has been carefully prepared, and is now on exhibition in the County Clerk’s office, east wing of the Court House, for the convenience of the public. The map shows the several tracts purchasedand condemned for park purposes, the size of each parcel, the names of the persons from whom they were purchased, and the price paid for each, together with the tracts included in the limits of the parks which hve not yet been purchased, or as to which proceedings for condemnation are pending.

The Inter Ocean, February 10, 1881

Under the head of unfinished business, the naming of the East and West parks was brought up.

On the motion of Commissioner Sherman it was voted hereafter call the East park Jackson Park, and the West park Washington Park.

Chicago Tribune, October 23, 1881

THE NAMES OF THE SOUTH PARKS.
The universal protest against the designation of the eastern portion of the South Park system as “Jackson Park” warrants some inquiry as to how this offensive partisan name came to be given to it. The South Park Commission consists now of Messrs. John R. Walsh, Bernard Callaghan, Martin Russell, John B. Sherman, and Paul Cornell. Mr. Cornell is the only man on the board who is regarded as a Republican. Mr. Sherman, perhaps, is not a very good Democrat, but it is understood that he rarely attends the meetings of the board. Messrs. Walsh, Callaghan, and Russell are all Democrats of the most pronounced character, and control the board. In fact, the board may be said to be unanimously Democratic, since Mr. Russell, the Auditor, is understood to “run things” as he pleases, while Messrs. Walsh and Callaghan, associate Democratic Commissioners, are called in—their offices being convenient—to give the sanction of the majority to Mr. Russell’s work. Hence it is easy to understand how the name “Jackson” came to be given to one of the South Parks, and why the people are in doubt whether it was called after Gen. Andrew Jackson, the sponsor of the spoils system in American politics, or Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson, the idol of the Confederates.

The Democratic Board of Commissioners must recognize the unfitness of this designation, especially as associated with the name of Washington, which has been given to the other of the South Parks, and they can well forego this partisan name in deference to public sentiment. American history does not place Gen. Jackson unpon the same plane with Washington, “the Father of his Country”; but there is one man, contemporaneous with Washington, with whose name Washington himself would be delighted to have his own connected in any manner. We refer to Benjamin Franklin. He was a scientist, a diplomat, a political economist, a statesman, and a patriot whose name will always give lustre to anything which it adorns. If one of the South Parks is to be called “Washington Park,” it would be eminently fitting to call the other “Franklin Park.” There would ben be no doubt in the minds of the people, after whom the East Park had been named, and no regret that a o partisan board had afflicted the people of Chicago, with a partisan name for one of their principal pleasure grounds. Messrs. Walsh, Callaghan, and Russell ought to reconsider this matter, and, if they neglect to do it, Messrs. Sherman and Council ought for once ton assert themselves. The system of parks should continue to be known as the South Parks, under which general name they are already familiar to the whole country.

Standard Guide to Chicago For the Year 1891, John J. Flinn

Jackson Park.—Area, 586 acres; about eight miles from the Court House; bounded by Lake Michigan on the east; Stony Island avenue on the west Fifty-sixth street on the north; and Sixty-seventh street on the south. This beautiful park has been brought into great prominence of late by reason of its selection as the site for a portion of the Columbian Exposition. About one-third of the park had been improved up to the present year, although immense works have been in progress for some time in preparing the unimproved portion for the public. These works included excavating and dredging for the chain of lakes which are to have connection with Lake Michigan; bridge and breakwater construction; leveling and embanking, and landscape gardening on an extensive scale. The improved portion of the park is at the northern end. Here there is a broad stretch of sward which has been used frequently as a parade ground bythe militia, and by large picnic parties. This is surrounded or hemmed in by a wooded avenue of great beauty, which opens upon a sea-wall and a beautiful view of Lake Michigan. There is erected here an immense shelter, of great architectural beauty, where thousands may, on occasion, be protected either from the heat of the sun or from a sudden rainfall. The trees and shrubbery in the improved part of the park, as well as the flowers, are very attractive, although the variety which one finds in some of the other parks is lacking. The number of trees and shrubs in the unimproved portion is comparatively small. About Sixty-first street there is one clump of oaks and maple, shot here and therewith bunches of fiery sumac. There is another and a larger grove west and north of this, Beyond there, except for a few small bunches and a fringe along the west fence, the unimproved portion is unbroken by wood. Jackson park will have undergone such alterations before the close of the present year that time spent in describing it as it is to-day would be time wasted. The opportunity of making it the grandest park of the system presents itself, and it will undoubtedly be taken advantage of. (See “World’s Columbian Exposition.”)

Washington Park.—Area, 371 acres; situated about one and a quarter miles west of Lake Michigan and about six and a half miles southeast of the Court House; bounded on the east by Kankakee avenue, on the west by Cottage Grove avenue, on the north by Fifty-first street and on the south by Sixtieth street. The finest of Chicago’s parks, more by reason of its magnificent entrances, Drexel and Grand boulevards, than by any great natural or artificial attraction of its own, although its flower beds are the most beautiful of any. It lacks many of the advantages which are enjoyed by Lincoln and Jackson Parks, the contiguity of the lake being of itself one of the greatest charms of the two last named. It can not boast of a zoological garden that will compare with Lincoln Park’s, nor of the magnificent monuments that are making the north shore park classical ground. But South Park has statelier trees, grander avenues, more sweeping perspectives, more charming drives than any other park in the city. It has the famous “Meadow,” a stretch of velvety sward that covers 100 acres and the “Mere,” with its thirteen acres of water, picturesquely sparkling behind long lines of ancient oaks and elms, and bathing the emerald banks of the mounds and knolls which almost conceal it from the view of the passing visitor. It has also its great conservatory (see Conservatories) and its splendid stables, which cover 325×200 feet, and through which you will be driven if you take a park phaeton. It has its delightful refectory, known as the “Retreat,” where refreshments are served for man and beast, but its flower gardens are its greatest boast, and here the visitor will pause the longest, for the angle in front of the flower house is probably the most seductive spot Chicago has to offer the lover of the beautiful in nature. Here you will find, during the months between May and November, the best exhibition of the landscape gardening art in the world. Flowers and foliage are made to do, in the hands of the gardener, what the brush and palette accomplish for the artist. The designs are changed annually, and are always original, always interesting and always lovely. An entire day can be very pleasantly spent in Washington Park.

THE PLAN OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.

Chicago Tribune, July 4, 1897

Study of the Stone Beach at Jackson Park—Drawn by H.G. Maratta.

Take it on a hot summer’s afternoon, or, better yet, on one of the sweltering evenings of the last week, and there are few places in Chicago more attractive than the stone beach at Jackson Park.

This is the wheelmen of the South Side well known, for since the beginning of the warm weather there has been no lack of popularity for that portion of the Lake Michigan beach. As there is nothing there to draw the crowds that come, except the beauty of the place and a chance to sit down and admire it, the very size of the throngs constantly gathered on the east edge of the park is one of the strongest arguments possible for its scenic attractions. Altogether, the beach at Jackson Park is well worthy of being ranked high among the wonder spots of this city.

The stone beach during the World’s Fair times only reached to Fifty-ninth street, but has been extended since to practically the entire waterfront of the park. The part which is so frequented by pleasureseeker, however, extends from Fifty-sixth street to Fifty-ninth street in a graceful curve. At the north end is the old stone pavilion, used during the World’s Fair as the Iowa State Building and famous for its exhibit of corn and grains; now a shelter for people in the park.Near the south end of the beach is the German Building, more beautiful now that even in the height of its exhibition lister. The waves have washed a great deal of sand in on the south end of this curving shore, making a most attractive bathing place, which the park authorities have in mind for another year. All around the swing of the water’s edge runs a cement sidewalk, along which have been placed by the foresight of the South Park Commissions scores of benches.

These straight-backed wooden benches are hard and there is plenty of green grass and inviting trees a short distance back from the water, but the seats are astonishingly popular. Especially is this so in the evening, when the usual condition is to have every particle of sitting space taken and dozens of couples looking for a chance to rest. The scene then, when the hundreds of stationary and moving lights from the bicycle lanterns combine with the grandeur of the dimly seen lake, is one to be remembered.

But if the the evening view of the Jackson Park beach is the more impressive, the day scene is certainly the most beautiful. Then the matchless charms of Lake Michigan are fully displayed. In the evening there is something awe-inspiring about a body of water so great that its limits in all directions are lost, and especially on a still night when the steady movement of the ground swell seems like the regular breathing of some giant creature. Yet, because the eye-sight carries so short a distance, a large part of the beauty of the scene is lost. The spray from the little waves which are running races down the length of the beach; the sails or smoke of passing vessels; the graceful curve of the shore in the distance, and the vivid colors of sky and grass and water, all add charms which it would be a mistake to miss.

For this reason the day scene at Jackson Park beach has been selected for reproduction in this issue of The Sunday Tribune as offering greater possibilities for illustration than the night time outlook. It is the third in The Sunday Tribune’s series of pictures of the most beautiful and characteristic of the many scenes about Chicago. As before H.G. Maratta has made the sketch of the view which is reproduced by the half tone process.

Jackson Park occupies a unique position among the Chicago parks. Although originally one of the earliest to be developed and brought to a state of cultivation in its northern portion, the World’s Fair has made it the last of the public gardens to be fitted for the people’s use. On this account it is much more modern in character than the others, and has less natural beauties and more artificial embellishments.

But with all its level character and high buildings, Jackson Park must be ranked high in the scale of beauty. Especially its eastern portion possesses one feature of attractiveness which no amount of artificial environment can harm—Lake Michigan. The stone beach built along its edge would have in some measure changed the appearance of the shore had not the constant action of the waves carried in enough sand to form its own natural border further out. It is this touch of nature, well aided by the artifice of the landscape engineer, that has made the eastern portion of Jackson Park so attractive.

Along the shore in the northern portion of the park are a dozen scenes and spots worthy of being put into a picture. In fact the main difficulty experience by the artist is not in finding a suitable view for his work, but in selecting the best out of the large number of available places. The scene selected for reproduction in The Sunday Tribune is taken from the pavilion at the north end of the stone bridge looking south. In the foreground are the benches, stone beach, and waves. Beyond is the greaceful cyrve of the shore, the roadway, the German building, and the willow grove. In the distance are shown the piers, horizon line on the water, and the general features of the park. Altogether the view is one of the gems of the South Side.

Chicago Defender, July 25, 1936

Consider Removal Of The Washington Park Conservatory
Southsiders who have made regular trips to the Washington Park Conservatory to view the beautiful floral displays may have to find some other conservatory after this fall, according to George T. Donog-hue, superintendent of the park district, who announces that removal of the Washington Park conservatory is being contemplated.

The old age and poor condition of the structure has just about doomed it, Mr. Donoghue said. He also said that no formal action would be taken until fall. The conservatory was erected in 1892.

An attendance check maintained since 1934 shows that the average per capita attendance cost of the conservatory is very high. In ad-dition, Mr. Donoghue said, the building has reached the point where for the sake of safety it must either be rebuilt or removed. The steel work has rusted to such an extent that it would cost about $200,000 to repair it, he said.

If the conservatory is abandoned the best portions of the foral displays will be transferred to the Garfield and Lincoln park conservatories. The site of the present structure will be occupied by outdoor gardens, which can be maintained at a low cost, the superintendent said.

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