WASHINGTON PARK (CHICAGO PARK)

'Washington Park' is a 380 acre (1.5 km²) park between Cottage Grove Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard, (originally known as "South Park Blvd.") located at 5531 S. Martin Luther King Dr. in the Washington Park community area on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was named for President George Washington in 1880.Graf, John, ''Chicago's Parks'' Arcadia Publishing, 2000, p. 84., ISBN 0-7385-0716-4. Washington Park is the largest of 4 Chicago Park District parks named after persons surnamed Washington (the others being Dinah Washington Park, Harold Washington Park and Washington Square Park, Chicago). This park is the proposed site of the Olympic Stadium for Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. Washington Park was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 20 2004.

Contents

Formation

History

Today

Olympic Bid

Plan opposition

Notes

External links

Formation

Washington Park was conceived by Paul Cornell, a Chicago real estate magnate who had founded the adjoining town of Hyde Park. Cornell had lobbied the Illinois General Assembly to established the South Park Commission. After his efforts succeeded in 1869, the South Park Board of Commissioners identified more than 1,000 acres south of Chicago for a large park and boulevards that would connect it with downtown and the extant West Park System (see Encyclopedia of Chicago Map). Originally called South Park, the property was composed of eastern and western divisions, now bearing the names Jackson and Washington Parks and the Midway Plaisance.^[1] Cornell hired Frederick Law Olmsted and his partner, Calvert Vaux, to lay out the park in the 1870s. Their blueprints were destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.^[2]
When Olmsted first examined the property, he saw a field filled with bare trees and decided to maintain its character by creating a meadow surrounded by trees. His plan for the park called for sheep to graze as a means of keeping the grass short. Cornell convinced Olmsted to include sporting areas, although Olmsted wanted a more natural feel to the park, which included a thirteen acre lake.^[3] The Western division was renamed Washington Park in 1881.^[4]

Olmsted designed the park to have two broad boulevards cutting through it, making it part of Chicago's boulevard system. From Washington Park, one can take the Midway east to Jackson Park, Garfield Boulevard west to Chicago Midway International Airport, or Drexel Boulevard north to the central city.
Horace W. S. Cleveland executed the plans within the limitations of the financial setbacks from the fire (including the loss of tax rolls) and the 1873 depression.^[5] Olmsted's vision for Washington Park was generally realized.^[6] However, since spending for the park was diverted after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. The loss of financial backing and difficulty in levying taxes after the fire meant that a water park could not be built on the property.^[7] From 1897 until the 1930's the park housed an impressive conservatory and ornate sunken garden designed by D. H. Burnham & Co. at 56th Street and Cottage Grove.^[8] The Washington Park Conservatory, like those of other city parks such as Humboldt and Douglas Parks, was torn down in the early 1900s. This left Lincoln Park and Garfield Park as Chicago's main Conservatories.^[9] One of the earliest improvements was the "South Open Green," a pastoral meadow with grazing sheep, also used as a ball field. Architect Daniel H. Burnham's firm designed the 1880 limestone round stables, the 1881 refectory, and the 1910 administrative headquarters for the South Park Commission. Other early attractions to the park included riding stables, cricket grounds, baseball fields, a toboggan slide, archery ranges, a golf course, bicycle paths, row boats, horseshoe pits, greenhouses, a rose garden, a bandstand, a small zoo featuring six alligators, and a lily pond. The lily pond (pictured left) was a particularly enticing attraction because few had seen such a site.^[10] Today, the administrative building houses DuSable Museum of African-American History.^[4] The park has retained its environmental appeal with continuing visionary support of the Burnham Plan which supported the maintenance of a park system.^[12]

History

In the 1920s black semiprofessional baseball teams played at Washington Park.^[5] George Lott began playing tennis at the park.^[14]
Washington Park was cite of tension and conflict arising from the demographic changes resulting from the African American expansion into the neighborhood.^[5]
The park has since 1973 hosted the DuSable Museum of African American History, a leader in the promotion of the history, art and culture of African American heritage.
On December 6 1879, former U.S. President Ulysses Grant took part in a tree planting ceremony in the park. A memorial boulder with a plaque (that have both been removed from the park along with the tree) commemorated the event.^[16]

Today

Interesting sights in the Park include the DuSable Museum of African American History and its sculpture garden, the Lorado Taft sculpture Fountain of Time, and an architecturally distinctive National Guard regiment. Washington Park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Washington Park is a social center of the South Side and hosts many festivals in the summer, including Chicago's best organized cricket league and the terminus of the Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic.Washington Park is also home to some of the best 16 inch softball you'll find anywhere. The largest league in Chicago is played there on Sundays (called "Sunday's Best Softball League"). There are 34 teams that play on 13 diamonds. There is also a weekday evening league.

Olympic Bid

On September 21, 2006, Mayor Richard M. Daley announced that an Olympic Stadium is being proposed for Washington Park as part of Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics (The International Olympic Committee requires cities have a dome with at least 80,000 seating capacity in order to be considered as summer Olympics' hosts). The stadium would seat 95,000 initially for the games, which would later be converted to a 10,000-seat below-ground arena for track-and-field and cultural events after the Olympics. The cost is estimated to be at least $300-400 million (USD).^[17] The plan replaces the initial dual stadium opening ceremony facility.^[18][19][20] Additional details about the plan include new permanent hockey fields, use of Jones Armory, and new pedestrian juncture between the two halves of the park by tunneling part of Morgan Drive (55th).^[21] For a photographic representation of the plan see Plan maps

Plan opposition

The plan faces diverse opposition among which are those that note Washington Park's listing on the National Register of Historic Places cannot survive this Olympic plan. Because of its landmark status, federal dollars could not be used to build a temporary stadium at this park site.^[22]

Notes

1. Washington Park Duo Consulting
2. Bachin, Robin, ''Washington Park'', Eds. Grossman, James R., Keating, Ann Durkin, and Reiff, Janice L., 2004 ''The Encyclopedia of Chicago'', p. 859. The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-31015-9
3. City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America, , Donald, Miller, Simon & Schuster, ,
4.
5.
6. Bachrach, Julia Sniderman, ''Park Districts'', Eds. Grossman, James R., Keating, Ann Durkin, and Reiff, Janice L., 2004 ''The Encyclopedia of Chicago'', p. 601. The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-31015-9
7.
8. Bachrach, Julia Sniderman, ''Conservatories'', Eds. Grossman, James R., Keating, Ann Durkin, and Reiff, Janice L., 2004 ''The Encyclopedia of Chicago'', p. 199-200. The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-31015-9
9. Graf, John, ''Chicago's Parks'' Arcadia Publishing, 2000, p. 87., ISBN 0-7385-0716-4.
10. Graf, John, ''Chicago's Parks'' Arcadia Publishing, 2000, p. 84., ISBN 0-7385-0716-4.
11.
12. Stradling, David, ''Environmentalism'', Eds. Grossman, James R., Keating, Ann Durkin, and Reiff, Janice L., 2004 ''The Encyclopedia of Chicago'', p. 278. The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-31015-9
13.
14. Long, John H., ''Tennis'', Eds. Grossman, James R., Keating, Ann Durkin, and Reiff, Janice L., 2004 ''The Encyclopedia of Chicago'', p. 814. The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-31015-9
15.
16. Graf, John, ''Chicago's Parks'' Arcadia Publishing, 2000, p. 85., ISBN 0-7385-0716-4.
17. Daley sets site for Olympic stadium Hinz, Greg
18. New Plan for Olympic Stadium Benjy
19. Daley Proposes Olympic Stadium To Be Built
20. Washington Park plan looks like a gold medal winner for the city Kamin, Blair
21. The proposal for Olympic 2016 facilities in Washington Park on Chicago's Mid-South Side and an historic Olmsted park with Community commentaries
22.

External links

★ Washington Park Maps

★ Official City of Chicago Washington Park Neighborhood Map

★ Chicago Park District: Washington Park