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Douglas Park (Chicago park)
Encyclopedia
Douglas Park is a large Chicago Park District
park
that also serves as a cultural and community center in Chicago
, Illinois
. It is named after the U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas
, who died in 1861. Originally named South Park, its 173 acre (0.70010678 km²) are in the North Lawndale
community area
of Chicago in Cook County
, Illinois
, United States with an official address of 1401 S. Sacramento Drive.
In 1869, the Illinois state legislature
established the West Park Commission, which was responsible for three large park
s and interlinking boulevard
s. Later that year, on November 4, 1869 the commissioner
s named the southernmost park in honor of Stephen A. Douglas
(1813–1861). Best remembered for his pre-Civil War
presidential defeat
by Abraham Lincoln
despite superb oratorical
skills, Douglas was a United States Senator
who helped bring the Illinois Central Railroad
to Chicago. In 1871, designer William Le Baron Jenney
completed plans for the entire West Park System which included Douglas, Garfield, and Humboldt
parks. Jenney's engineering
expertise was especially helpful for transforming Douglas Park's poor natural site into parkland. He had manure
from the Union Stock Yards
and sand
added to the marshy site. This process brought the 173 acre (0.70010678 km²) of land to grade level. In the center of the landscape, Jenney created a picturesque lake
, and a small section of the park was formally opened in 1879. Inflated construction costs and post Great Chicago Fire
tax collection difficulties resulted in phased projects. The first improvements were made to the park by Oscar DuBuis in the 1880s. Between 1886 and 1888 Douglas Park, like the other West Park System parks, replaced its greenhouse with a conservatory. In 1895, members of several German turners' clubs
petitioned for an outdoor gym
nasium, and the following year one of Chicago's first public facilities was constructed with an outdoor gymnasium (pictured right), swimming pool
, and natatorium
.
By the turn of the century, the West Park Commission was riddled with political graft
, and the three parks became dilapidated. As part of a reform effort
in 1905, Jens Jensen
was appointed as General Superintendent and Chief Landscape Architect
for the entire West Park System. Jensen, now recognized as dean of the prairie style
of landscape architecture
, improved deteriorating sections of the parks and added new features. Among Jensen's improvements were a semi-circular entryway at Marshall Boulevard, and a formal garden
at the corner of Ogden Avenue and Sacramento Drive. By the time Jensen designed the garden, Ogden Avenue, a diagonal roadway with a major streetcar
thoroughfare that would later become part of Route 66
, had already been constructed. The road divided the park into two separate landscapes, creating a busy intersection
at the junction of Ogden and Sacramento Avenues. Jensen's solution was a long axial garden on the southeast side of the intersection, providing a buffer between Ogden Avenue and playing field
s to the south. Jensen demolished the conservatories in each of the West Park System parks in favor of one grand conservatory at Garfield Park.
At the entrance to the garden, the area closest to the busy roadway intersection, Jensen placed a monumental garden shelter, known as Flower Hall, and a formal reflecting pool
. The designer of the structure is unknown, however, it was possibly Jensen himself, or his friend, prairie school architect Hugh Garden. East of the building, the garden becomes more naturalistic. Jensen included perennial beds, a lily
pool, and unique prairie-style benches. In 1928, the West Park Commission constructed a fieldhouse
in Douglas Park. The structure was designed by architects Michaelsen and Rognstad, who were also responsible for other notable buildings including the Garfield Park Gold Dome Building, the Humboldt and LaFolette Park Fieldhouses, and the On Leong Merchants Association Building in Chinatown
. In 1934, Douglas Park became part of the Chicago Park District
, when the city's 22 independent park commissions merged into a single citywide agency.
course, five playgrounds, an outdoor swimming pool, soccer fields, basketball courts, and an oval running track. The park also retains its original lagoon
, a wide variety of trees and the original Jenney designed stone bridge. The greenhouse that attracted visitors from throughout the city was torn down in 1905. The statue of Czech patriot, Karel Havlíček Borovský
, by Joseph Strachovsky was moved to Solidarity Drive on today's Museum Campus in the vicinity of the Adler Planetarium
in 1981. Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid included plans to host the Olympic cycling competitions in this park, including a velodrome and a BMX course.
Chicago Park District
The Chicago Park District is the oldest and largest park district in the U.S.A, with a $385 million annual budget. It has the distinction of spending the most per capita on its parks, even more than Boston in terms of park expenses per capita...
park
Park
A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...
that also serves as a cultural and community center in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. It is named after the U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen Arnold Douglas was an American politician from the western state of Illinois, and was the Northern Democratic Party nominee for President in 1860. He lost to the Republican Party's candidate, Abraham Lincoln, whom he had defeated two years earlier in a Senate contest following a famed...
, who died in 1861. Originally named South Park, its 173 acre (0.70010678 km²) are in the North Lawndale
North Lawndale, Chicago
North Lawndale located on the west side of Chicago, Illinois, is one of the well-defined community areas in the city of Chicago.-History:...
community area
Community areas of Chicago
Community areas in Chicago refers to the work of the Social Science Research Committee at University of Chicago which has unofficially divided the City of Chicago into 77 community areas. These areas are well-defined and static...
of Chicago in Cook County
Cook County, Illinois
Cook County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, with its county seat in Chicago. It is the second most populous county in the United States after Los Angeles County. The county has 5,194,675 residents, which is 40.5 percent of all Illinois residents. Cook County's population is larger than...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, United States with an official address of 1401 S. Sacramento Drive.
History
Illinois General Assembly
The Illinois General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois and comprises the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The General Assembly was created by the first state constitution adopted in 1818. Illinois has 59 legislative districts, with two...
established the West Park Commission, which was responsible for three large park
Park
A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...
s and interlinking boulevard
Boulevard
A Boulevard is type of road, usually a wide, multi-lane arterial thoroughfare, divided with a median down the centre, and roadways along each side designed as slow travel and parking lanes and for bicycle and pedestrian usage, often with an above-average quality of landscaping and scenery...
s. Later that year, on November 4, 1869 the commissioner
Commissioner
Commissioner is in principle the title given to a member of a commission or to an individual who has been given a commission ....
s named the southernmost park in honor of Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen Arnold Douglas was an American politician from the western state of Illinois, and was the Northern Democratic Party nominee for President in 1860. He lost to the Republican Party's candidate, Abraham Lincoln, whom he had defeated two years earlier in a Senate contest following a famed...
(1813–1861). Best remembered for his pre-Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
presidential defeat
United States presidential election, 1860
The United States presidential election of 1860 was a quadrennial election, held on November 6, 1860, for the office of President of the United States and the immediate impetus for the outbreak of the American Civil War. The nation had been divided throughout the 1850s on questions surrounding the...
by Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
despite superb oratorical
Oratory
Oratory is a type of public speaking.Oratory may also refer to:* Oratory , a power metal band* Oratory , a place of worship* a religious order such as** Oratory of Saint Philip Neri ** Oratory of Jesus...
skills, Douglas was a United States Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
who helped bring the Illinois Central Railroad
Illinois Central Railroad
The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois with New Orleans, Louisiana and Birmingham, Alabama. A line also connected Chicago with Sioux City, Iowa...
to Chicago. In 1871, designer William Le Baron Jenney
William Le Baron Jenney
William Le Baron Jenney was an American architect and engineer who became known as the Father of the American skyscraper.- Life and career :...
completed plans for the entire West Park System which included Douglas, Garfield, and Humboldt
Humboldt Park (Chicago park)
Humboldt Park is a park located on the northwest side of Chicago, Illinois at 1400 North Sacramento Avenue.The park was named for Alexander von Humboldt, a German naturalist. William Le Baron Jenney began developing the park in the 1870s, molding a flat prairie landscape into a "pleasure ground"...
parks. Jenney's engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
expertise was especially helpful for transforming Douglas Park's poor natural site into parkland. He had manure
Manure
Manure is organic matter used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Manures contribute to the fertility of the soil by adding organic matter and nutrients, such as nitrogen, that are trapped by bacteria in the soil...
from the Union Stock Yards
Union Stock Yards
The Union Stock Yard & Transit Co., or The Yards, was the meat packing district in Chicago for over a century starting in 1865. The district was operated by a group of railroad companies that acquired swampland, and turned it to a centralized processing area...
and sand
Sand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...
added to the marshy site. This process brought the 173 acre (0.70010678 km²) of land to grade level. In the center of the landscape, Jenney created a picturesque lake
Lake
A lake is a body of relatively still fresh or salt water of considerable size, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land. Lakes are inland and not part of the ocean and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are larger and deeper than ponds. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams,...
, and a small section of the park was formally opened in 1879. Inflated construction costs and post Great Chicago Fire
Great Chicago Fire
The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about in Chicago, Illinois. Though the fire was one of the largest U.S...
tax collection difficulties resulted in phased projects. The first improvements were made to the park by Oscar DuBuis in the 1880s. Between 1886 and 1888 Douglas Park, like the other West Park System parks, replaced its greenhouse with a conservatory. In 1895, members of several German turners' clubs
Turners
Turners are members of German-American gymnastic clubs. A German gymnastic movement was started by Turnvater Friedrich Ludwig Jahn in the early 19th century when Germany was occupied by Napoleon...
petitioned for an outdoor gym
Gym
The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...
nasium, and the following year one of Chicago's first public facilities was constructed with an outdoor gymnasium (pictured right), swimming pool
Swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...
, and natatorium
Natatorium
A natatorium is a term given for a building containing a swimming pool. In Latin, a cella natatoria was a swimming pool in its own building, although it is sometimes also used to refer to any indoor pool even if not housed in a dedicated building...
.
20th-century redevelopment
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
, and the three parks became dilapidated. As part of a reform effort
Reform movement
A reform movement is a kind of social movement that aims to make gradual change, or change in certain aspects of society, rather than rapid or fundamental changes...
in 1905, Jens Jensen
Jens Jensen (landscape architect)
Jens Jensen was a Danish-American landscape architect.-Early life:Jens Jensen was born near Dybbøl in Slesvig, Denmark, in 1860, to a wealthy farming family. For the first nineteen years of his life he lived on his family's farm, which cultivated his love for the natural environment...
was appointed as General Superintendent and Chief Landscape Architect
Landscape architect
A landscape architect is a person involved in the planning, design and sometimes direction of a landscape, garden, or distinct space. The professional practice is known as landscape architecture....
for the entire West Park System. Jensen, now recognized as dean of the prairie style
Prairie School
Prairie School was a late 19th and early 20th century architectural style, most common to the Midwestern United States.The works of the Prairie School architects are usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands,...
of landscape architecture
Landscape architecture
Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor and public spaces to achieve environmental, socio-behavioral, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic investigation of existing social, ecological, and geological conditions and processes in the landscape, and the design of interventions...
, improved deteriorating sections of the parks and added new features. Among Jensen's improvements were a semi-circular entryway at Marshall Boulevard, and a formal garden
Garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...
at the corner of Ogden Avenue and Sacramento Drive. By the time Jensen designed the garden, Ogden Avenue, a diagonal roadway with a major streetcar
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
thoroughfare that would later become part of Route 66
U.S. Route 66
U.S. Route 66 was a highway within the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926 -- with road signs erected the following year...
, had already been constructed. The road divided the park into two separate landscapes, creating a busy intersection
Intersection (road)
An intersection is a road junction where two or more roads either meet or cross at grade . An intersection may be 3-way - a T junction or fork, 4-way - a crossroads, or 5-way or more...
at the junction of Ogden and Sacramento Avenues. Jensen's solution was a long axial garden on the southeast side of the intersection, providing a buffer between Ogden Avenue and playing field
Playing field
A playing field is a field used for playing sports or games. They are generally outdoors, but many large structures exist to enclose playing fields from bad weather. Generally, playing fields are wide expanses of grass, dirt or sand without many obstructions...
s to the south. Jensen demolished the conservatories in each of the West Park System parks in favor of one grand conservatory at Garfield Park.
At the entrance to the garden, the area closest to the busy roadway intersection, Jensen placed a monumental garden shelter, known as Flower Hall, and a formal reflecting pool
Reflecting pool
A reflecting pool or reflection pool is a water feature found in gardens, parks, and at memorial sites. It usually consists of a shallow pool of water, undisturbed by fountain jets, for a calm reflective...
. The designer of the structure is unknown, however, it was possibly Jensen himself, or his friend, prairie school architect Hugh Garden. East of the building, the garden becomes more naturalistic. Jensen included perennial beds, a lily
Lilium
Lilium is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs. Most species are native to the temperate northern hemisphere, though the range extends into the northern subtropics...
pool, and unique prairie-style benches. In 1928, the West Park Commission constructed a fieldhouse
Field House
Field House or Fieldhouse is a common name for indoor sports arenas and stadiums, mostly used for college basketball, volleyball, or ice hockey.-Colorado:*Balch Fieldhouse, University of Colorado...
in Douglas Park. The structure was designed by architects Michaelsen and Rognstad, who were also responsible for other notable buildings including the Garfield Park Gold Dome Building, the Humboldt and LaFolette Park Fieldhouses, and the On Leong Merchants Association Building in Chinatown
Chinatown
A Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of overseas Chinese people, although it is often generalized to include various Southeast Asian people. Chinatowns exist throughout the world, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe. Binondo's Chinatown located in Manila,...
. In 1934, Douglas Park became part of the Chicago Park District
Chicago Park District
The Chicago Park District is the oldest and largest park district in the U.S.A, with a $385 million annual budget. It has the distinction of spending the most per capita on its parks, even more than Boston in terms of park expenses per capita...
, when the city's 22 independent park commissions merged into a single citywide agency.
Today
The park has served as a central location for recreation since it was first built. It currently houses a miniature golfMiniature golf
Miniature golf, or minigolf, is a miniature version of the sport of golf. While the international sports organization World Minigolf Sport Federation prefers to use the name "minigolf", the general public in different countries has also many other names for the game: miniature golf, mini-golf,...
course, five playgrounds, an outdoor swimming pool, soccer fields, basketball courts, and an oval running track. The park also retains its original lagoon
Lagoon
A lagoon is a body of shallow sea water or brackish water separated from the sea by some form of barrier. The EU's habitat directive defines lagoons as "expanses of shallow coastal salt water, of varying salinity or water volume, wholly or partially separated from the sea by sand banks or shingle,...
, a wide variety of trees and the original Jenney designed stone bridge. The greenhouse that attracted visitors from throughout the city was torn down in 1905. The statue of Czech patriot, Karel Havlíček Borovský
Karel Havlícek Borovský
Karel Havlíček Borovský was a Czech writer, poet, critic, politician, journalist, and publisher. He lived and studied at the Gymnasium in Německý Brod , and his house on the main square is today the Havlíček Museum...
, by Joseph Strachovsky was moved to Solidarity Drive on today's Museum Campus in the vicinity of the Adler Planetarium
Adler Planetarium
The Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum in Chicago, Illinois was the first planetarium built in the Western Hemisphere and is the oldest in existence today. Adler was founded and built in 1930 by the philanthropist Max Adler, with the assistance of the first director of the planetarium, Philip Fox...
in 1981. Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid included plans to host the Olympic cycling competitions in this park, including a velodrome and a BMX course.