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Historic Preservation and Historic
Preservation in Depth
Jackson Park Timeline
Reflections
on the History of Jackson Park
including some material on the World's Columbian Exposition of
1893
What's in this page or elsewhere in the website:
A Columbian Exposition mystery maybe you can solve? Brief essay on Columbus and JP
("Lagoons" and "Osaka Garden" are the most chronologically-oriented page sections, in addition to the Timeline page.)
Columbian Exposition on line? There are surprisingly few sites. A search of the sites of the Chicago Public Library (reach directly or via second citation below) and the Chicago Historical Society will bring up most. Visit the Columbian Exposition page for more.
A virtual-thesis tour, World's Columbian Exposition: Idea, Experience, Aftermath: xroad.virginia.edu/~MA96/WCE/title.html
A Digital Library of the four chief Fair-era books on the World's Columbian Exposition, by Paul V. Galvin. If you have lots of memory, find it by name and open it. www.lib.uchicago.edu/ecuip/diglib/chicago/guide/
Illinois Institute of Technology site.
Peter Nepstad has a CD/ROM game with a full navigation of the fairgrounds from historic views and photos, with descriptive text. Look in his site www.illuminatedlantern.com.
Hyde Park Historical Society's Hyde Park History in 1994 issued an article on Chicago Day at the Fair (limited supply). Later at least two issues dealt with the great Ferris Wheel (and discovery of its foundations during construction of a skating rink), and on the Iowa Exposition Building and Granite Paved Beach--including a brilliant deduction that links the building and shoreline.
(Photography of the Fair was at least supposed to be a monopoly--maybe partly because private pictures revealed the messy side- we think littering is new?)
The next Jackson Park facility (after the Statue of the Republic) to enter the landmark designation process was the 63rd Bathing Pavilion. Final designation with final designation December 8, 2004. See in 63rd St. Bathing Pavilion. (The Museum of Science and Industry was designated in the 1970s. The Submarine U-505, the park, and Wooded Island have National Registry designation.) The Park District named the Upper Pavilion of the 63rd Street Bathing Pavilion for Eric Hatchett, JPAC President in the 1990s who advocated for successful restoration of the Pavilion.
Tribute to Frederick Douglass, Haitian Pavilion at Columbian Explosion
For some years in the mid 2000s Barry Rapoport, then teacher at South Shore High School Small School for Leadership, led groups of students in marking off the footprint of the Haitian Pavilion at the Columbian Exposition and talking about the pavilion (first completed building, near where the Bowling Green is, southeast of the Museum and by Lake Shore Drive) and the role of Frederick Douglass there in giving speeches (including the first ceremonial speech) and informing the public. Mr. Rapoport has also made and used large puppets of Douglass and other notables of the time in the educational project at the site.
In his report on the project, Rapoport proposed a maker to Douglass and the Fair occasion at the site and markers at two other historic spots in Jackson Park and Midway Plaisance. The proposal for the Douglass marker was, with Council approval and advice and that of elected officials narrowed to a small boulder with incised text. The proposal was submitted with support to the Park District and a summit was held that has presumably led to recommendation to the CPD Board of Commissioners. Here is the notice from the Hyde Park Historical Society's Autumn 2007 Hyde Park History.
If all goes as planned, a collaborative effort between the School of Leadership of South Shore High School and the Chicago Park District will result in a commemorative marker honoring abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass. Plans call for an engraved boulder to be installed near the present Lawn Bowling Court in Jackson Park just north of the 59th Street Harbor, the precise location of the Haitian Pavilion of the 1893 Columbian World Exposition. This project, which began more than two years ago, credits Douglass for his leadership and commitment to the quest for knowledge and will give Chicagoans a more inclusive historical perspective about the activities of this great leader.
Douglass, appointed the Minister-in-Charge of the Haitian Pavilion, gave the dedication address on January 2, 1893, Haitian Independence Day.
From final report and recommendations of the South Shore High Frederick Douglass/CPS-CPD park teaching project
In the Spring of 2005, during our Cross-Curricular Unit on Chicago, we… became aware that Frederick Douglass was a former slave, abolitionist, orator, statesman, Conductor for the Underground Railroad, journalist, and founder of the newspaper, The North Star: later known as The Frederick Douglass newspaper. Douglass also spent much time in Chicago where he lived in 1893 and was directly involved in a major Chicago event. For example:
1. Douglass gave the Dedication speech opening The Columbian Exposition on January 2, 1893, from the Haitian Pavilion located north of the Bowling Green.
2. We also learned that George Ferris designed and led a team that constructed the first ever Ferris wheel for the Fair.
3. We also became aware through an alumni survey that South Shore alumni are ignorant when it comes to many of the facts pertaining to Jackson Park.
4. We learned that many people who live in and around the park, both currently and those who have lived here in the past are largely unaware of the historical significance of the intellectual discussions raised in this park during the World’s Columbian Exposition.
5. And what a surprise it was to find out that the Museum of Science and Industry was The Fine Arts Palace, designed and built for the Columbian Exposition.We would like to make three suggestions to support knowledge and awareness of the park. The suggestions are graphic and have been stimulated by the Project…
During the summer of ’05, I obtained letters of support for a school-park collaborative project from the Jackson Park Advisory council and from Alderman Hairston. The Chicago Park District also gave their approval for our proposed programming.
Throughout the year, ending in June 2006, we chalked the spot where Douglass was and entertained passersby. We had two students and three adults on site. We spoke with fishermen, pedestrians, bicyclists (if they stopped), joggers and the harbormaster as well as many of the boaters in the motorboat harbor. We had no complaints that we were aware of. Everyone recognized immediately, that what we were doing was a good thing. One of the participating students, absorbing the positive energy of the site, learned to juggle three juggling clubs. He could already juggle beanbags, but from beanbags to juggling clubs is a step not all jugglers make.
I am hopeful that the markings recommended to the Park will be approved, passed along and implemented.
It was great meeting so many wonderful people with each step on this project. It is my hope that seeds have been planted that will find fertile soil.
Thank you very much!
Barry RapoportEd. The three recommended markings honoring sites at the Columbian Exposition are: 1) two boulders with plaques, like the one honoring Paul H. Douglas at Osaka Garden on Wooded Island—one on the spot where Frederick Douglass gave the inaugural address at the Haitian Pavilion and the other near the foundation site of the great Ferris Wheel on Midway Plaisance. 2) a sign on 57th Drive near the Museum of Science and Industry saying “Welcome to Jackson Park, Site of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.” Top
More in Columbian Exposition page. Top
Plans afoot to dig for the past in Jackson Park, and an accidental find October 2006
In late 2006 the Jackson Park Advisory Council heard from Rebecca Graff on her urban archeological digs in conjunction with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and of proposals to dig in Jackson Park, particularly Wooded Island--and dig seriously, not by accident as with the Germania finds in the southeast part of the park. After questions were answered, the council voted its support and asked her to return with a full description of what, where, how extensive and how long the dig would be. The support was clarified and confirmed at the January 8 meeting. Here is more information as provided in the Hyde Park Herald, February 7, 2007. (By Daniel J. Yovich)
Rebecca Graff digs history, and the University of Chicago anthropology graduate student hopes to find historical remnants from the World's Columbia[n] Exposition in Jackson Park.
Graff said she is reluctant to detail her project because her proposal for a limited excavation of he are sis now under review by the Chicago Park District. However, at the Jan. 8 Jackson Park Advisory Council meting, the organization voted to support Graff's proposed urban anthropological excavation, which she hopes will shed some light on the life and times of those who visited and built the 1893 World's Fair and the years thereafter.
Graff has a personal connection with the project. The first job her immigrant great-grandfather had when he arrived from Russia in 1892 was as a laborer helping to build the complex and surrounding landscape for the fair.
"If we get permission for this project, we would hope to find some artifacts that can shed further light on how people lived at that time," Graff said. Graff, who has done similar research in other cities as part of her education, hopes to seek help for the project from local high schools. "This can be a great learning experience and ideally, if we get permission and if the timing of this works out, I'd love to partner with the local public schools, Graff said.
Hyde Park Historical Society and JPAC member Fran Vandervoort said the timing of Graff's proposed excavation may be fortuitous for lovers of Chicago's early planning history. Vandervoort notes that 2009 marks the 100-year anniversary of the Chicago Plan, better known as the Burnham Plan after its principal author, Daniel H. Burnham.
Considered by civil engineers as one of the most noted documents in the history of city planning, the Burnham Plan [included] a blueprint of a system of parks and broad avenues that transcended the Chicago street grid in a pattern reminiscent of t e French Baroque tradition favored for 19th-century Paris.
"So to find artifacts from the very late nineteenth and early twentieth century that has to do with the use of Chicago's parks from that time would be wonderful," Vandervoort said.
Following the storm in October 2006 that that uprooted or snapped off several trees in Jackson Park and many other parts of the South Side, bird watchers Leo and Caroline Herzenberg were inspecting damage when the note under an uprooted tree a wedge-shaped piece of glass with some stamped writing. Upon search of the internet and other research, they learned this was a fragment of the kind of glass blocks used to spread light and reduce need for hazardous artificial lighting in ships and underground warehouses. Frank Lloyd Wright held patents on similar such blocks. Patent marks showed this particular fragment was made in the late 1890s. How and when it got on the Island is not known. More information is in the January issue of Hyde Park Historical Society's quarterly publication. Visit www.hydeparkhistory.org for more information.
Rediscovering and resuscitating a park: the 1970s and 1980s
Jackson Park had become a rather dangerous and rundown place by the 1970s, caught between Park District neglect and gangs. Among those determined to turn things around were the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference, Ald. Leon Despres, and Doug Anderson. In 1971, the HPKCC held the first of a series of annual Wooded Island Festivals in the early fall. Activities included in various years, starting in 1973, Doug Anderson's bird walks, the only steam calliope in the Midwest, Chicago Children's Choir, Renaissance Ensemble under Howard Brown of the U of C, and the inimitable Darlene Blackburne and her Troupe. Weaving and clay, pottery, rock painting macrame, quilting, a trampoline from the YM, field games and runs, blood pressure screening, 1000 bulbs from the Garden Fair, and tours of the Perennial Garden were also featured. Unfortunately, the festivals ceased due in part to new problems with liability and insurance.
Desiring a more ongoing "people presence," Ald. Despres in 1973 asked Doug Anderson to start bird walks (with so much more), which were given several times a week in the old days, now after 30 years twice weekly March 26 (Paul Douglas's birthday) through the traditional New Year's day trek. Doug also lobbied successfully to have the Island designated a Nature Sanctuary named for U.S. Senator Paul H. Douglas and to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Doug also gives monthly Columbian Exposition tours for the Chicago Architecture Foundation May through October.
Gradually the Island and the Park became safe and popular again. In the early 1980s, the first of several rehabilitations of the Japanese Garden was undertaken at local, city, and international initiative--the Garden was renamed after donor Sister City Osaka, Japan. Meanwhile, a federal court consent decree in 1982 was supposed to guarantee more equitable Park District attention and resources for the park and led to establishment of a vigilant advisory council. Also, new ideas, attention, and resources for nature sanctuaries as special places in the parks emerged.
Historic maps and views
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Above: Park designer Frederick Law Olmsted by John Singer Sargent, 1895. Right: Plan in 1880 --note that the solid-color north part is all that was developed at that time and is the part most different from today except North Pond/Columbia Basin and North/Darrow Bridge. Next row: South-middle of the park and MSI and north part of the lagoons in 1950
Next is the post-Fair Olmsted & Olmsted 1895 plan and the much less formalized layout in the 1905 revision, considered by many the "historic template" of Jackson Park.
Finally, configuration of the middle of the park and lagoons as actualized by 1918 (South Lagoon = Inner Harbor).
Above 1895, Below 1905
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Schematic of the middle and southern park by 1918. X marks the location of the Golden Lady, dedicated that year. |
To The Republic statue landmarked
This hemisphere and Jackson Park would have been found by peoples from the Old World without Christopher Columbus, but the park would have been quite different without a Columbus connection. Park and surrounding neighborhood development were moving along slowly until coming-of-age Chicago and its movers pushed for the right to host the celebration of the fourth centenary of Columbus’ New World landing. The directorate of city and local business, civic, and landowning leaders sited the Columbian Exposition in largely undeveloped Jackson Park and the Midway and entrusted execution to Daniel Burnham’s and Frederick Law Olmsted’s team. The area filled up as thousands came to prepare the swamp-and-swale ground, build the Fair, build housing for the visitors and serve the same. The world’s peoples brought arts, sciences, engineering wonders—even contraries to the established story-Norse, Native American...
The Fair, and the new, adjacent University of Chicago, gave as much to the character of the park as did Olmsted’s original vision and design. His firm redesigned the park after the Fair, but elements are descended from the Fair, including lagoons and basins and the great museum. Of course, many features remained or are descended from pre-Fair, even pre-settlement times, including hundreds-years-old oak stands. And--as originally inspired Olmsted--Jackson remains a diversified, emergent-edge environment, not quite sure whether it belongs to lake and shore, prairie, or savanna.
But the Exposition honoring Columbus came at a cusp in developmental stages of Chicago, U.S., the park and its neighborhoods, and a world evolving into globalization. The Village came here!-exclusions and flaws and all. It drew a phenomenal proportion of Americans to the Chicago Summer. Take the time to read some of the books about the extraordinary complexities, triumphs and tragedies and the stories centered or reflected at the Fair. And watch for tours of the Fair footprint next year—with added docents for the many who come to Jackson Park to recall that formative moment. GMO
Remembering the 'Viking' of Jackson Park
[note: Museum of Science and Industry in 2003 did not have the ship on its priorities and says it will not be involved in fundraising for rescue or restoration. JPAC at its April meeting resolved to nonetheless seek to enlist Museum involvement, noting that MSI is the natural place for it, first because it houses the two ends, then as both are related to the World's Columbian Exposition, and MSI exhibits much on nautical technology and prowess and is spending 20 million to restore, move, and re house the U-505 Submarine.
JPAC was told that various organizations, Mainly Norwegian American) have raised monies already and expect to make an announcement. In July 2006, the Director of Planning for the Park District informed JPAC that being explored is Museum of Science and Industry receiving, restoring, and exhibiting the Viking Ship.
Among supporters are local and national Norwegian organizations. At a 2003 meeting, JPAC resolved to ask the Museum of Science and Industry to provide a home for the ship in light of their mutual association with the Columbian Exposition and the history and technology of sailing and since the Museum already has parts of the ship.
Hyde Park Herald, March 26, 2003, by Peter Nepstad
About an hour's drive west of Chicago, in a private park, sits a 110-year-old wooden ship that once made headlines around the world. The flimsy tarp that protected it from the elements has been blown aside by strong winds, and rain now freely pounds against the exposed wood. It is only a matter of time until the ship is damaged beyond repair. But in its current location, few people will even note its disappearance; many believe it is gone already.
It wasn't always this way.
The story of the ship is a long one that goes back to 1880, to Gokstad, Norway, and the discovery of a Viking war vessel unearthed from a burial mound. The Gokstad, as it was called, was built around 890 and was in remarkable shape. It provided the first tangible evidence that the Vikings had built ships capable of traveling to the New World.
But the proof would have to wait for a Norwegian named Magnus Andersen who decided that a replica of a Viking ship should be sailed across the Altantic, as a counterpoint to the World Exhibition that would be held in America in 1893 to honor Columbus. He later recalled, "As I thought this over more closely, I found the idea more and more attractive. That Leif Erikson had been in America before Columbus had been clearly proved but was not commonly known either in America or elsewhere, not even Norway...".
The replica of the Gokstad was funded by popular subscription and completed in time for the Exposition. It was decorated with a silk banner embroidered with ravens. The ship itself was christened "The Raven," but American popular press quickly named it, "The Viking." Magnus Andersen was the Captain.
The Viking sailed from Bergen, Norway and reached Newfoundland four weeks later. The crew, uncertain how the ship would handle on the open seas, found it had exceeded all expectations. "We noted with admiration the ship's graceful movements," Andersen later wrote.
From Newfoundland, Viking headed south to New York, then sailed into the Great Lakes. Carter Harrison, Chicago's four-term mayor, boarded and took command for the last leg of the voyage, arriving at Jackson Park on Wednesday, July 12, 1893 to much fanfare. Magnus Andersen had turned his dreams into reality.
The Viking moored at Jackson Park for the remainder of the fair. Afterwards, the Captain piloted it through the ILM canal to the Mississippi River, all the way to New Orleans--the only seafaring vessel ever to do so.
The ship was brought back to Chicago and stored in the Field Columbian Museum until 1919, when it was restored and placed in Lincoln Park. In 1933, Magnus Andersen repeated his historic voyage in a modern freighter to appear at Chicago's Century of Progress Exposition.
The ship sat in Lincoln Park right up until the 1970's. Covered by a roof and enclosed by a chain-link fence, it sat outside in the blistering heat of summer and the freezing cold of winter until the wood seems more akin to steel than anything else. Time had taken its toll on the Viking.
The Chicago Park District, without the funds to do a proper restoration, sold the ship for $1 to the American Scandinavian Council, which promised to raise the necessary funds, estimated at $12 million dollars, to restore the historic vessel.
It seemed like a good idea at the time. But the funds were never successfully raised, and no preservation or restoration has been done. Unfortunately, the ship was also moved out of Lincoln Park, and has been out of the public eye for nearly thirty years. Now it sits in Good Templar Park, a private park located in Geneva, IL, and closed to the public for much of the year. And the careful work of keeping it dry for the past fifty or so years is being undone by a temporary shelter that no longer keeps off the rain.
It seems unbelievable that the historic vessel has ended up in this condition. But the situation is not entirely without hope. Ownership may have reverted to the Chicago Park District. And all parties are now seeking a new, permanent location. Cook County Commissioner Carl Hansen, a long time advocate of the project, describes all parties as committed to saving the ship and giving it a new home where everyone can enjoy this part of their cultural heritage. "We are looking for a permanent location for the ship, before we try again to preserve it," Hansen said. "We've all learned the hard way how hard it is to raise funds for something when no one knows whet will happen to it once it is finished."
Nothing has been decided yet, and discussions for a new home for the Viking are still underway. Among the possibilities: the Museum of Science and Industry, housed in the last remaining World's Fair building still located in Jackson Park. Perhaps someday soon, the Viking will once again set sail, and return to the place that has always been its only true destination.
This is one of a series of articles being published monthly through a collaboration of the Herald with the Hyde Park Historical Society.
Peter Nepstad has studied the 1893 World's Fair for the past four years to develop a CC-ROM adventure game called "1893: A World's Fair Mystery" which can be ordered on line at http://illuminatedlantern.com/1893.
[March 29, 2003] at 1:00 p.m. Peter Nepstad and Douglas Anderson [appeared] at the Hyde Park Historical Society [5529 S. Lake Park] for a presentation on the Columbian Exposition followed by a related tour through the Wooded Island.
The Olmsted sons' firm redesigned the park after the Exposition and it underwent a number of facility additions and reconstructions between 1894 and 1905, with more additions later. Remains from before the Fair included: The prior comfort station part of the Iowa pavilion at the northeast corner and slowly subsiding granite paver strolling beaches. Of Fair vintage the Palace of Fine Arts (Field Columbian Museum) south of 57th Street; and the North (later Darrow) bridge to the south; the"Rhine Castle" German building near 63rd not far from shore with a restaurant until demolished in 1925 and old steamboat piers nearby. The LaRabida Convent replica on Promontory Circle (not the present Hospital further south), and in the Harbor replicas of Columbus' Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria that you could board until they went to the San Francisco Exposition of 1915--only the Santa Maria later came back, and it burned in 1939. The three Japanese temple buildings at what is now Osaka Garden on Wooded Island, and the historic Cahokia Courthouse (later returned downstate). New constructions and additions are detailed by year in the Timeline page.
In the early decades of the century, people enjoyed buggy and auto rides through the park (traffic was very light), picnics, strolling the granite-paved beaches and piers, visiting or snacking/dining at the remaining amenities of the fair, rowing off shore or around the lagoons (which grew much larger that before or later) and Columbia Basin (there were boat houses), skating the lagoons (there was a warming house) and Basin in winter, strolling (in winter snowshoeing) on or around Wooded Island and its Japanese temple-gardens and the Rose Garden (established in ? or remaining from the Exposition?) until the 1950s-and now as a partly wild, partly specially planted tallgrass prairie still the best place for birding. Wonderful bridges were built of stone. The Field Columbian Museum was highly popular as was the later Museum of Science and Industry which replaced the Field in the building under patronage of Julius Rosenwald of Sears, Roebuck. From the 1890s were a 9-hole as well as 18-hole golf course and a track south of where the bowling green would be built in 1927 (southeast of the Museum). Other sport fields and courts were built.
The U-505 WWII captured Submarine and its move
To Submarine page
The 'Iowa' building and plans to display Columbian Exposition Germania monument remnants there (on hold)
Visit the Iowa page.
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Jackson Park Lagoons
Lagoon Restoration Project and to sub pages, maps
The Boardwalk-Nature Walk Project
and photo gallery
History and background
Lagoons
were proposed by park designer Frederick Law Olmsted in his 1871 Plan and took
their approximate modern shape, under Olmsted's direction, during the World’s
Columbian Exposition of 1893. The Lagoons surrounded the Wooded Island, which
served as a respite for fairgoers and housed a wonderful Japanese pavilion (placed
there against Olmsted’s wishes).
Olmsted planted
a distinctive palette of aquatic and shore plants in the lagoons, including
lily pads and cattails, and created a grand vista graced with willows when one
looked from the north bridge south of the Palace of Fine Arts. Olmsted's idea
from the start was that boaters would progress from the Lake and harbors (and
you could until the 1950's) through the wild splendor of the lagoons and down
the (never realized) Venetian canal in Midway Plaisance to Washington Park’s
lagoons and pastoral Great Meadow. Olmsted’s sons redesigned the lagoons
in the decade after the Fair.
Below: major sections of the lagoons as refined by Olmsted in 1880, in 1918 and 1950, before the southern end was filled in circulation patterns broken, and as proposed for rehabilitation in 2001. Consult also, at head of page, the post-Fair 1895 plan and the 1905 revised version, sometimes considered the historic template.
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Over the years, the water quality, plants, and edge deteriorated, islets eroded or became submerged due to fluctuating lake levels and rain regimes. The lagoons became dumping grounds for everything from highway and other construction debris to tires, and even a safe and water fountain. In the 1930’s, federal works projects straightened edges and filled in embayments. The southeast lagoon and its connection to the Inner Harbor were filled in to accommodate the Nike missile base in a sort of dry land for wetland swap. Connections to the Inner Harbor and 59th Street Marina were severed.
Looking south from Darrow and Wooded Island North Bridges, and southeast to the North Bridge from new observation/fishing pier. By Gary Ossewaarde. Autumn picture above by George Rumsey. Below by Gary Ossewaarde
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Having an essentially
closed circulation now, the lagoons deteriorated further. The lagoons have only
20% of the rain watershed needed to be self-sustaining and self-cleansing, needing
as much as a foot acre of water a day to maintain their level. Algal blooms
are a problem and a symptom. Also, non-native, invasive plants took over much
of the shore and islets. Through all this, the lagoons, islands and shores continued
to attract hosts of resident and migratory birds and is one of the finest places
to see birds of the Great Lakes Flyway. (In the Birding at Jackson Park page,
there is a list of birds you are likely to see in Jackson Park’s the natural
areas.)
2002 South from Darrow Bridge: new stone pier; mat protects new plants. East Lagoon restored shore from Osaka Garden
A state grant of $250, 000 was secured by State Representative Barbara Flynn Currie just as the Chicago Park District and City of Chicago undertook a new commitment to restore lagoons throughout the park system. The result is a $3.5 million Jackson Park project. Elizabeth Koreman became project manager for the District. Prime contractors included Schaefges Brothers and Madden. Clauss Brothers undertook collateral work in Osaka Garden in 2002. Contributing also were staff of the Park District’s Department of Natural Resources including Mary Van Haaften and JPAC’s Nature Committee, chaired by Ross Petersen and including Doug Anderson. For reports on the project and its objectives, see the links at top of page. Although there were miscalculations and controversies, the results were generally on target, although it will take years to bring back the full range of wildlife and unless tended the emergent plantings could be lost. A more recent problem is milfoil invasion.
Story of the lost Old Oak, with historic context
Osaka Japanese Garden on Jackson Park's Wooded Island
Osaka Garden home page with pics, sub pages and photo gallery page
Osaka
Garden is
located on Wooded Island (Paul H. Douglas Nature Sanctuary) in Jackson Park.
Due to Lake Shore Drive construction and construction of a new home for the
Museum's submarine, you can only enter from 58th and keeping left to park in
the Music Court lot (P-2 on map) by coming north on Lake Shore Drive from Hayes
Drive (6300). If you park in the Music Court lot, walk west over the Clarence
Darrow Bridge (where Columbia Basin south of the Museum meets the lagoons) and
continue southwest to the North Bridge. The Garden is a short walk south, to
your left.
You can also walk to the North Bridge from Cornell Drive (to the west), or park in the Museum Garage ($) (P1) and do this or take Hayes Drive and turn north east of Cornell to park in the lot (P3) and walk north through Wooded Island--but that is a fair walk although thoroughly enjoyable.
Osaka Garden started with building up the natural oak savannah sandbar known as Wooded Island for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and building a Japanese garden and Ho-o-den (Phoenix Temple) for the government of Japan as its pavilion for the Exposition. This was located on the southwest corner of the Island, with a living village of Japanese workmen. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted was at first reluctant to have a formal garden and temple because he conceived the island as a rustic resting spot from the bustle of the Fair. But the pavilion was highly popular and helped introduce Americans to Japanese culture, religion, arts, and architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright was one of several architects influenced by the pavilion, but the impact on him was arguably transformational (and influenced his decorative arts also). Today, the local Frank Lloyd Wright and architectural organizations, including Wright Plus, co-sponsor the annual Osaka Garden Festival and give occasional tours of the garden.
After the Fair, the Ho-o-den remained after most of the rest of the Fair perished. Today, one special lantern is probably the only original furnishing that remains.
In 1933, the government of Japan constructed a traditional Nippon Tea House at the Century of Progress World's Fair on Chicago's near /mid-south lakefront. The Tea House was moved in 1935 to Wooded Island, near the Ho-o-den, and a traditional Japanese Garden was built thanks again to Japan. The structures burned in 1946. Gradually the site and Wooded Island became neglected and unsafe.
A rebirth was sparked by two events in 1973. Chicago formed a Sister City relationship with the city of Osaka, Japan. (The relationship really went back to 1956.) One of the goals of the Sister Cities program was to revive the Japanese Garden in Jackson Park. In that year also, Alderman Leon Despres persuaded Douglas Anderson to begin his now renowned bird walks on the Island and surrounding natural area in Jackson Park, in part to reclaim them for birders and the communities of Hyde Park, Woodlawn, and South Shore. Gradually, thanks in good measure to Doug and to picnics/People in the Park events held by the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference and Open Lands, citizens and birders returned, and rediscovered Osaka Garden, and demanded its restoration. In 1978, Anderson persuaded officials to name the whole Island after his mentor, environmental and parks advocate Senator Paul H. Douglas and in 1972 had Jackson Park placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Efforts to restore the garden and a build a simplified tea house reached fruition in 1981 and 1983, when the Garden was completely restored and rededicated. George Cooley, currently a JPAC officer, shepherded planning and secured grants for the Garden restoration. Japanese experts were brought in, including designer Kaneji Domoto. Many area groups and individuals have since tended the special palette of plants and trees (including rare pines). Additional important dates for evolution and growth of the garden complex were 1992-3, when the 20th anniversary of the Sister City relationship was celebrated and the Garden renamed Osaka Japanese Garden, and 1994-5, when such additions as a new Torii traditional formal gate (Kobayashi & Associates of Seattle), were dedicated, funded by the City of Osaka. The garden gradually became an international mecca, despite poor directional signage to it. It is a prime site for viewing local and migratory birds. It also presents an interesting set of microclimates and habitats as well as a contrast to the more rustic habitats of the rest of the Island.
Osaka Garden FestivalIn the late 1990's, an annual Osaka Garden Festival was organized by Robert Karr and many associates from several organizations, including Japanese-American arts, cultural, religious, and martial arts groups, the City of Osaka and government of Japan, the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs/Sister Cities, Chicago Park District, and Chicago Architecture Foundation. The arts, music, ceremonial and martial arts performances, and food were spectacular. It was held in September. Someone should ask the Dept. of Cultural Affairs what it would take to bring it back. |
The principle of a Japanese garden is that you should not have a view of the whole from any one perspective but be refreshed and have your senses stimulated as you come around each turn. Important features include a turtle island in the pool, a moon bridge and walk over water, lanterns and statuary, and a waterfall. All, including the plants, have symbolic references and spiritual effects. For example, by our taking a curved or zigzag path over water, the evil spirits that wear us down to fall away into the water, because they are said to travel only in straight lines. The design was skillfully carried out by experts highly knowledgeable of such associations and effects.
Unfortunately, vandalism sometimes plagued the Garden, to the point that fencing the whole Island was considered in the late 1990's. The sheet shoring along the shore of the interior pool and the East Lagoon was insufficient to guard against lagoon level fluctuations. The waterfall size and pump were not sufficient to keep the water fresh. Shore plantings were not kept up. Stopgap restorations ensued, including that of 1895. Some of the pines suffered infections.
2002 Restoration in conjunction with the Lagoon Restoration Project
It was recognized that at least shore stabilization and replanting should be undertaken as part of the ambitious lagoon restoration project. Other funds suddenly became available in early 2002, including from Japan. However, the migratory bird season arrived before the Japanese Garden expert, Uchiyama, could come from Oregon and personally oversee the engineering and craftsmen's work. By that time, it was understood that a complete rebuilding of the lower reaches of the Garden was necessary, and both this and the specialist work took much more time than expected, barring the Garden to birders and viewers and users of the Garden. Yet, funds were not sufficient to do all the work thought desirable.
The sudden onset of this project with minimal communication to JPAC or Doug Anderson and other tour leaders caused great inconvenience, for which the Park District and project managers apologized. In fact, lack of information on site may have encouraged several late-night break-ins and vandalism which occurred. The garden was reopened by the second week in August. At the August 12 JPAC meeting, members proclaimed the results to be most beautiful. It is hoped that the new protections to the shore, new waterfall and pool, and newly stabilized lagoon levels should prevent previous recurrent problems.
The project included draining and lining the interior pool, giving it sheet steel edge protection, enlarging and repositioning the waterfall, new access to the moon bridge, and new lagoon shore planting at the newly stabilized lagoon water level. The new waterfall has five times the volume of the former and now adds the sonic effect which is part of a traditional garden. There was little change in the main garden vegetation template. Overseeing much of the work were noted Japanese bonsai experts led by Mr. Uchiyama from Oregon. The contractor was Clauss Brothers. Mr. Uchiyama would like to see much more done.
Thought will be given to further upgrades, including new planting--for example, special irises in the mudflat end of the pool--currently unfunded, but providing partnership opportunities. A support group for the Garden is being formed and expects to incorporate. If interested, contact Gary Ossewaarde or Robert Karr (when communication is reestablished) or the Japanese Chamber of Commerce. You may also visit the Osaka Volunteers site, www.Osakagarden.org.
Another good site is that of JPAC member David Solzman, parked in the site of Museum of Science and Industry, including a picture gallery( click here: more.) See more pics in the site of JPAC and HPKCC member Mary Rose Shaughnessy. The City of Chicago's site (look for Department of Cultural Affairs--Sister Cities) and the Japanese Gardens organization have additional material.
Granite-Paved Beach North of 63rd Street to be reborn
Reconstruction north of 63rd Street Beach gets was completed. Visit the history and controversy over the paved beach.
The Animal Bridge over the connection between Outer and Inner harbors
To Animal Bridge graphic and photo gallery. To Reopening of Animal Bridge
The bridge on Coast Guard Drive north of Marquette Drive (6600 S.) was moved a few feet north c. 2002-3, widened and restored, and an underpass constructed just to the south. The visible span and the famous animal heads were restored and reinstalled in 2003. There are new landscaping and points from which to view the heads.
The bridge (originally South Bridge) has a long history. Olmsted had an 1871 plan for a bridge at that place. but bridge plans were destroyed in the Great Fire that year! Development of the park was delayed by property claim suits, difficulty of the terrain, and the Fair. The Olmsted firm plan for the post-Fair park, drawn in 1895, was similar to the original plan, and had a viewing bridge between the harbors, although the channel was envisioned farther north than built.
When the bridge site was actually settled and decision made to build it and a major drive, the remains of the Germania monument from the Columbian Exposition was in the way and presumably knocked over in sections and buried in the vicinity. Germania was intended to promote an early example of advanced concrete (portland cement) construction in sections--and has lasted intact for a century--versus our concrete highways and structures!!. The South (Animal) bridge just 10 years later showed the prescience of using this material and how far design had come along. Patents had just been taken out for a system of steel reinforcement in a concrete arch span, named the Kahn system.
In 1903, commissioners announce plans to finally construct the South Bridge providing a lakefront route to new neighborhoods to the southeast of the park. On March 28, they accept the submission of Peter J. Weber of Cologne, Germany, who had also worked on the Columbian Exposition and Marshall Field's (with the Burnham firm). His inclusion of relief and full 3-D heads of water-dwelling or popularly so associated animals ( hippopotamus, rhinoceros, water fairies, ship's prow...) clearly reflected Olmsted's theme of interaction of water and land and emergence from the water. (The limner and sculptors are unknown.)
The engineer is unknown, but reinforcing steel shop drawings were from the Trussed Concrete Steel of Detroit, which specialized in the Kahn reinforcing system.
In 1904, the bridge was finished by Thomas E. Hill company; cost $40,085. Planned lampposts at the corner were not installed. It is a single 40 foot span as an elliptical reinforced concrete arch and is an early example of Kahn steel reinforcing system in a concrete bridge structure, patented in 1092
The stone came from the Kettle River Quarries Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In 1947, widening of Lake Shore Drive (Coast Guard) required converting the whole width of the span to traffic lanes. A narrow bridge for pedestrians and bicyclists and strung with utility lines was built to the east.
In 2002, the bridge and its sooted, graffitied heads was removed piece by piece for reconstruction and restoration.
To Animal Bridge graphics and photo gallery
Southern Shore Yacht Club
Southern Shore, one of three separate clubs in the Jackson Park harbor system, has a lovely clubhouse on the west side of the Inner Harbor, on 6401 S. Richards Drive. It wasn't always so, as told in the club's historical pamphlet by Robert J. Smith, updated by Carl J. Miller.
In 1912, eleven powerboat sailors ("stinkpotters"), finding little support from the sailing club in the outer harbor, organized a South Shore Power Boat Club (changed to its present name in 1930).
At first, even getting their gasoline delivered was a difficulty for the boaters. After using temporary homes, the club towed and refit an old houseboat in the outer harbor. (Clubs were then required to be afloat at all times.). Using great resourcefulness, the boat/clubhouse was later relocated in the inner harbor and, still later, anchored so that it seemed to float.
In the early 1920's, the club won a ruling that the then South Park Commissioners could not charge mooring fees unless it provided moorings. The harbor was dredged in 1926.
After the houseboat clubhouse burned in 1934, members built the present Cape Cod style clubhouse, with much help and great resourcefulness. Tom Wilson and John Swanson incorporated a compass rose into a floor of rosewood and special woods waxed under pressure. Ralph Green made special doors for the fireplace and carved the club name over the front door. Portholes, with 3/4-inch thick glass, came from the Century of Progress. Bricks were swiped from in front of a home being demolished (later donated by the owner when she found out!)