City - Chicago IL - Grant Park 1901
by Mike Savad
Title
City - Chicago IL - Grant Park 1901
Artist
Mike Savad
Medium
Photograph - Colorized Photo
Description
Colorized photo from 1901
Original Title: The Lake front from the Illinois Central Station
Photographer: Detroit Publishing
Location: Grant Park, Roosevelt Rd & Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL
We are presently in Chicago, just at the foot of Grant park, you may not recognize it because it's presently a huge lawn. It's had a pretty long history as I'll explain.
1836-1837 - Chicago was officially a city 4 years after it was declared a town. At the time it had 4000 people in it. As they were designing the location, a parcel of land that had a beach front was set aside, to be used just as a park, and no other building will sit on top of it. It was located right next to Michigan Ave. It was intended to be public ground.
1847 - This open space was named Lake Park, but it didn't stay a waterfront park for very long. They found that the lake produced a lot of waves and was rather choppy. They were concerned about the property along the coast. So when the Illinois Central Railroad asked to add a rail over the water, the city said yes. In return they added a long track over the water (about where the last track is near the water in this picture). They also added a rock seawall that protected the park. They started the construction in 1852.
1850 - By this time this area was mostly residential houses, you can still see some of them here.
1869 - They expanded the rail yard so they can service boats and grain elevators. They say that trains were responsible for the growth of the city, but the reality was the waterway was the real source of progress.
1871 - The city now had 300,000 residents. But from the evening of Oct 8th to Oct 10th, the great fire broke out and burned down a 1/3rd of the city. Over a 100,000 were homeless, though this area wasn't touched. It stopped roughly at the far end of park. As they rebuilt the city, they dumped all the rubble into the lake, which filled in the area between the shore and the trains.
1890 - Aaron Montgomery Ward started litigation that helped guide the development of Grant
Park and other lake frontage land to what it is today. He didn't want the space to be used by buildings as they were slowly encroaching over the land and using the park as a garbage dump.
1903 - The city hired the Omsted Brothers to develop the park, they used a French landscaping principles such as symmetrical spaces, defined by pathways and plantings.
1908-1914 - By now, they were almost done filling in the area from the shore to the tracks. They used anything they could find to use as a fill, dredging from the lake, using coal ash, and construction debris. It was agreed that nothing will be built on the park, but next to it, or under it, that's fine. So they installed that train yard.
1920's - They built ornamental viaducts and landscaping, as well as the gift of Buckingham Fountain. The grassy areas provided an ideal landing strip for airplanes. And for a little while Grant park became the official US Mail airfield. But due to an accident, they scrapped the idea.
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December 16th, 2020
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